The $1.3 trillion budget bill passed last week will have repercussions going for Republicans moving forward, and the repercussions could be "cataclysmic" if the party's lawmakers keep insisting on spending like Democrats, Republican Study Committee Chairman Rep. Mark Walker warned Monday.
"We are now matching levels, if not even more of a deficit than [former President Barack] Obama's last three, maybe four years in office," the North Carolina Republican, one of 90 to vote against the measure, told Fox Business' "Mornings With Maria."
"We promised to do better."
What Republicans in Congress should be doing, Walker continued, is fulfilling their promises and allowing the "chips to fall where they may."
"We have much to run off from 2017," he said, including tax reform and pro-life legislation, but "if Republicans get to the mindset that we can spend like the Democrats do, and not do anything from here to November, I think that would be cataclysmic."
Walker said his committee is coming back "with a great fervor" while pushing for a balanced budget amendment "that's going to be much more in tune and balancing hopefully in 10, 11, at the most 12 years."
"It's very important that we communicate these principles to the American public if Republicans want to keep the majority," he added.
It was also "preposterous" to expect lawmakers to vote on the bill after not getting it until the day before, said Walker.
"We have eight full-time people staffers on the Republican Study Committee who stayed up all night trying to get through the bill," he said. "They weren't able to complete it."
Walker did commend the current economy, but pointed out that in just a few years, mandatory spending has gone from about a third of the national budget to "closing in to 75 [or] 76 percent of our budget."
"We simply can't sustain that," Walker said. "In this specific omnibus it increased the non-discretionary spending or discretionary spending 13 percent in one year."
Walker added that he and and other fiscal conservatives are feeling like "the adults in the room" who are trying to put out some warning signs.
"We're the only group that doesn't have a special interest that we're advocating for," said Walker.
He did admit that the military did need the increased spending that the omnibus bill established, however.
"I've stood in the empty silos in Alaska where this previous administration depleted our military in defense, but at the same time we have to understand that unless we're willing to go after these mandatory reforms we will not leave the next generation very much to work with."
Walker Monday also defended President Donald Trump's use of tariffs against the Chinese, saying the country has engaged in a pattern of bad behavior.
However, he said the United States does not want to get to the place where tariffs increase U.S. consumer costs or jobs, but "I believe going after bad actors and communicating very clearly what the Chinese have been doing specifically their leadership, I think it's a very educational moment for Americans."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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