Whatâs Wrong Today:
Republican leaders in Congress seem to be reneging on the Sequester agreement they reached with the White House last summer. âSequesterâ is budget-speak for across-the-board cuts.
The original August 2011 deal that resolved the debt ceiling impasse called for a $1 trillion limit on discretionary spending for fiscal 2013. House conservatives now want deeper cuts. House GOP leaders are offering a compromise that would include some cuts, but not enough for its Tea Party members, while Democrats say they will reject anything that breaks the original deal.
Last week, Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) signaled during an interview with Fox Business that he was open to reneging on the budget deal the GOP crafted with Democrats last year during the debacle over raising the debt ceiling. Though the parties agreed as part of that deal to a spending level for the 2013 budget, Boehner is being pushed by the more conservative members of his party to cut even deeper. And that pressure has paid off, as both Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-OH) are ready to propose cuts below the level specified in the debt ceiling deal: House Republican aides said on Tuesday that House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor were pressing for a $19 billion reduction of discretionary spending caps in this yearâs Republican budget plan.
So, Whatâs Wrong?
Tighten your seat belts folks; itâs going to be a very rough ride. Weâre hurtling towards another government shutdown fight, in which the House GOP leadership will be trying to mollify its Tea Party wing while trying to get a few Democrats to support modest additional cuts.
The fight will not be about the size of the cuts, it will be about when is a deal a deal? And when can either party trust the other once a compromise is finally achieved?
If the GOP moves to re-litigate the budget cuts, that action will set a precedent that future Presidents and Congresses will remember and take into account when a protracted partisan fight forces them to strike deals in order to govern. Sen. McCain and others have been talking since last November about walking away from the agreed defense cuts that are a part of the sequester.
Republicans will justify breaking the deal by arguing that the original compromise only set a cap on spending, or, an upper limit, meaning thereâs nothing preventing spending from being cut further. While Democrats and the White House will argue that even Mitch McConnell himself recently acknowledged that what was actually agreed upon were âdiscretionary spending levels.â
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said:
âIâm really disappointed that theyâre consideringâŚviolating the budget agreement that is now the law of this country. This was designed to avoid another government shutdown or a threat of a shutdownâŚWe had a deal last August on the budget numbers, and we expect them to live with that dealâŚâ
The end result of this standoff could be yet another government shutdown, as the governmentâs current spending authority expires on September 30.
Why is the GOP risking so much for this fight? Because President Obama is doing better with the good news on job numbers, the recent stock market run up, and the continuing sideshow that is the debate on limiting insurance for contraception.
Now, John of Orange and Eric the Thin are thinking they could be staring at life in 2013 from the deep political weeds.
This will be the defining election year fight on Capitol Hill â one that will test Democratsâ will to break the GOPâs anti-tax absolutism, which is a skirmish in the broader fight between the parties over the future of the social safety net.
The GOP made the sequester deal understanding the consequences. They agreed to the consequences and they probably thought that when the time was right, they could walk away from it. Despite making careers out of enforcing rules that can never be broken, the GOP now finds they can be flexible.
An agreement was reached. It must be honored. To do otherwise is WRONG!
