Republicans Deliver a Real Spending Cut After Inflation

The U.S. House last week passed the final batch of fiscal year 2026 appropriations bills. Predictably, a wave of online criticism followed, claiming spending levels were too high and that House Republicans failed to deliver deeper cuts.

That criticism ignores basic facts and misunderstands how federal budgeting works.

First, year-over-year appropriations spending under these bills is set to grow more slowly than both overall inflation and nominal economic growth. That matters. When spending grows more slowly than prices, it declines in real dollar terms. When it grows more slowly than the economy, it shrinks as a share of gross domestic product.

By any honest fiscal definition, that is a spending reduction.

Real spending cuts are not always dramatic line-item slashes. In a large, inflation-pressured federal budget, holding spending growth below inflation is how discipline actually shows up.

It is how government slowly takes up less space in the economy over time.

Second, appropriations bills do not pass the Senate with a simple majority. They require 60 votes. That procedural reality gives Senate Democrats leverage and places real limits on what the House alone can impose.

Ignoring that constraint is not serious budgeting. It is performative outrage.

With narrow Republican majorities in both chambers, there are hard ceilings on what can be achieved through the appropriations process. Major structural reforms must move through reconciliation or separate authorizing legislation. Expecting sweeping discretionary cuts under divided government is not realism. It is fantasy.

Fiscal responsibility is not measured by how loudly someone complains online. It is measured by outcomes. On that score, the FY 2026 appropriations package slows spending growth, reduces the federal footprint relative to the economy, and moves policy in the right direction given the political math.

That is progress.