According to the AP, the White House and speaker John Boehner and other congressional leaders are close to a budget deal that would fund the government and raise the debt ceiling until March of 2017. There would be equal increases in military spending and domestic spending, and there would be concurrent cuts in certain Agriculture Department programs for crop insurance and also in Medicare payments six to ten years from now. There would also be measures taken to fund the Social Security Disability program with regular Social Security funds. There are other wrinkles in the supposed deal, but the points above are the main ones.
Think what this means. First, we have the positives:
1. There will be no shut down of the government or default in payments on USA debt.
2. The issue will be off the table for the presidential campaign.
Then there are the negatives:
1. The idea that Congress is supposed to review individual programs each year when it passes spending bills will be dead for another two years. That means that president Obama will have gone through his entire two terms with general spending measures that made almost no changes to existing programs. Those that don't work or are inefficient will just continue and those that work very well will not be increased. The "supervisory" role of Congress will remain dead.
2. The limits on spending that were one of the few real accomplishments of the Republican majority in the House will be dead. We will be back to the old days in which spending just goes up each year no matter what happens.
3. The idea that Congress could stop actions with which it does not agree by cutting off funds will also be dead. For example, if Congress wants to defund Planned Parenthood, it can do so by passing a spending bill that omits such funding. That leaves Democrats the choice of shutting down the government by filibustering in the Senate or by Obama vetoing the bill. After this deal is put in place, the Republicans would have to get a majority to delete funding, something that the Democrats could easily stop in the Senate with a filibuster.
I understand the frustration of the GOP majorities. Nothing they do seems to get through the media protection of Obama. Just last week, both the House and Senate passed funding for the military. Obama vetoed that bill! None of the media paid any attention. Indeed, most likely there are less than ten percent of all Americans who know that Obama vetoed funds for the armed forces in order to use the safety of our troops as political leverage in the fight over domestic funding levels.
This is not a good deal.
Think what this means. First, we have the positives:
1. There will be no shut down of the government or default in payments on USA debt.
2. The issue will be off the table for the presidential campaign.
Then there are the negatives:
1. The idea that Congress is supposed to review individual programs each year when it passes spending bills will be dead for another two years. That means that president Obama will have gone through his entire two terms with general spending measures that made almost no changes to existing programs. Those that don't work or are inefficient will just continue and those that work very well will not be increased. The "supervisory" role of Congress will remain dead.
2. The limits on spending that were one of the few real accomplishments of the Republican majority in the House will be dead. We will be back to the old days in which spending just goes up each year no matter what happens.
3. The idea that Congress could stop actions with which it does not agree by cutting off funds will also be dead. For example, if Congress wants to defund Planned Parenthood, it can do so by passing a spending bill that omits such funding. That leaves Democrats the choice of shutting down the government by filibustering in the Senate or by Obama vetoing the bill. After this deal is put in place, the Republicans would have to get a majority to delete funding, something that the Democrats could easily stop in the Senate with a filibuster.
I understand the frustration of the GOP majorities. Nothing they do seems to get through the media protection of Obama. Just last week, both the House and Senate passed funding for the military. Obama vetoed that bill! None of the media paid any attention. Indeed, most likely there are less than ten percent of all Americans who know that Obama vetoed funds for the armed forces in order to use the safety of our troops as political leverage in the fight over domestic funding levels.
This is not a good deal.
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