Senator Patty Murray and representative Paul Ryan announced an agreement tonight on federal spending levels for the next two fiscal years. Part of the sequestration cuts are to be replace with more targeted cuts and revenue measures that include larger contributions by federal employees to their pensions, slower growth of military pensions, higher security fees on airline tickets among other things. That part of the deal makes complete sense, even though I would have preferred to avoid the security fee increase which is akin to a tax increase. The last part of the deal, however, includes extending certain cuts in Medicare reimbursements for two additional years in 2021 and 2022. This is nonsense to be sure; no one knows if any of these cuts will ever be made. Ryan has traded current spending increases for possible future cuts; it is not a good idea. The good thing is that these items only total about 20 billion dollars, an amount which is about one third of one percent of federal spending each year.
On the whole, this seems like a reasonable compromise. It accomplishes the following:
1. If the deal passes, the days of lurching from one government funding crisis to the next will be over for at least two year. This will put more certainty back into the process and help the economy.
2. The Defense Department will not get hit with unreasonable additional spending cuts in 2014.
3. There will still be spending caps in place which will prevent any huge increases in spending moving forward.
4. Congress will be able to focus on individual spending items and hopefully inject some oversight into the process.
5. There will be no government shutdowns, so the focus moving forward can stay on other items where it belongs.
If I were in Congress, I would vote for this deal.
On the whole, this seems like a reasonable compromise. It accomplishes the following:
1. If the deal passes, the days of lurching from one government funding crisis to the next will be over for at least two year. This will put more certainty back into the process and help the economy.
2. The Defense Department will not get hit with unreasonable additional spending cuts in 2014.
3. There will still be spending caps in place which will prevent any huge increases in spending moving forward.
4. Congress will be able to focus on individual spending items and hopefully inject some oversight into the process.
5. There will be no government shutdowns, so the focus moving forward can stay on other items where it belongs.
If I were in Congress, I would vote for this deal.
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