The unified Republican government this week passed a spending package that would have been praised by Barack Obama. The $1.3 trillion omnibus spending package was created in secret and was passed with the pressure of a looming government shutdown. This disaster of a spending bill raises discretionary spending and grows the national debt, two things Congressional Republicans have campaigned against in the past four elections.

This spending glut increases discretionary spending by 13 percent, and all but assures that the federal government will run a $1 trillion deficit this year. This will be the highest deficit since mid-way through the Obama Administration. It betrays the Republican promises of cutting spending, capping spending as a percentage of our economy, and dashes any hope of balancing the budget in the near future. It is fiscal recklessness that undermines our nation’s financial future and our government’s solvency.

The passage of this package is the most egregious fiscal betrayal of the Republican base since the Tea Party movement of 2010. This spending package, coupled with this Congress failing to repeal Obamacare last year, may create an obstacle to the GOP retaining control of Congress this fall. Republican voters are tired of being sold-out by party leaders, and just running against Democrats is not enough to energize voters desperate for an end to $ trillions in debt and the ongoing nightmare of Obamacare.

It is past time for Congress to do something it has done only twice in decades: pass individual appropriations bills for various departments of government, combine them into an actual budget, and hold the departments of government responsible for living within that budget. Instead, Congress is now merely presiding over the demise of a great nation, and time is running out.

Clearly, electing Republicans is not an automatic answer for fiscal responsibility; we must elect conservative champions intent on rolling back spending, capping it as a percent of our economy, and balancing the federal budget.