A landmark spending bill—putting the brakes on years of steady growth in domestic appropriations—cleared the House Thursday, but not before Republicans had to reach out to Democrats to save them from defeat because of defections on the right.
The 260-167 high stakes vote posed a first test of whether this Congress can find some middle ground from which to address still more difficult budget issues.
The same Republican divisions could yet be an obstacle in the Senate, but with House passage secured, the joint leadership was hoping was to complete action there as well by Thursday night.
Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) stepped forward to support the package together with old Democratic allies on the House Appropriations Committee. Across the aisle, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio)—who bore the brunt of the dissent as fellow leaders stood silently by— bluntly told his colleagues: “This is the best we could get out of divided government.”
Indeed, after months of operating from one stop-gap bill to the next, cabinet departments and agencies will be put on more permanent footing—albeit with less money than allowed last year prior to Novembers elections. The new appropriations target— just shy of $1.050 trillion— reflects a nearly $38 billion cut from the rate of spending when this new Congress began in January, and is $78.5 billion below President Barack Obama’s initial requests more than a year ago for fiscal 2011.
Obama and Boehner—together with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) reached the deal last Friday. But down to the end, Boehner’s unique role as both speaker and party leader was pivotal as he seemed to swing between embracing Democratic votes and his more partisan goal of keeping a GOP-dominant fight with as few defections as possible.
Tea party conservatives were clearly restless with the deal, and overnight conservative bloggers jumped on new independent cost estimates by the Congressional Budget Office that the deal will have only minimal impact on the deficit before this fiscal year ends Sept. 30.
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
4 Responses
The bill does not put the brakes on anything unless it is enacted by the Senate and signed by the president, so save your gushing for a while.
And if enacted, the status of this bill is a “landmark” of nothing until we see what effects, if any, it has on the US economy, which I expect will be minimal.
Landmark??? Far from it. Boehner folded like a cheap tent and he will pay for it. Either he got taken for a ride or he is bigger RINO than he was given credit for.
It’s still a record deficit, something on the order of tax dollars covering only about 60% of government spending (if you figure the Federal Reserve’s funding of the banking sector with free loans and other “tricks”). $30 billion is chump change. A meaninful cut would be in the hundreds of billions, and probably would require serious cuts of everything (including the military, social security, medicaid and medicare, pensions, salaries) as well as serious tax increases (not just on the rich).
We are still heading for a replay of Berlin 1923.
At last some common sense from the House. Speaker Boehner is to be congratulated for getting this bill passed in spite of his Tea party crackpots in his caucus. Now if senator reid can get this through the senate (a much easier task) and President Obama signs it (a foregone conclusoion), we can at last talk about next year’s budget.