Category Archives: appropriations

How The Budget Deal Could Threaten Obamacare

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An angry John Boehner (R-OH) lashed out at conservative groups who opposed the budget deal. The deal strengthens his hand with his caucus and in negotiations over changes to Obamacare. [Credit: Washington Post]

An angry John Boehn­er (R‑OH) lashed out at con­ser­v­a­tive groups who opposed the bud­get deal. The deal strength­ens his hand with his cau­cus and in nego­ti­a­tions over changes to Oba­macare. [Cred­it: Wash­ing­ton Post]

“Frankly, I think they’re mis­lead­ing their fol­low­ers. I think they’re push­ing our mem­bers in places where they don’t want to be. And frankly, I just think that they’ve lost all cred­i­bil­i­ty.” – House Speak­er John Boehn­er (R‑OH), com­ment­ing on oppo­si­tion by con­ser­v­a­tive groups to the bud­get deal.

Last week’s over­whelm­ing House vote to rat­i­fy a mod­est bud­get agree­ment has been var­i­ous­ly depict­ed as a defeat for the Tea Par­ty, a rare instance of bipar­ti­san­ship, and a moment of ratio­nal­i­ty in an oth­er­wise chaot­ic and dys­func­tion­al bud­get process. It is all of those things and some­thing more: a new threat to the already trou­bled imple­men­ta­tion of Oba­macare. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Politics as the Art of Spurning Compromise

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It may take a bigger gavel for House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) and his Senate counterpart Patty Murray (D-WA) to hammer out a budget agreement. (Credit: Swampland Times)

It may take a big­ger gav­el for House Bud­get Com­mit­tee Chair­man Paul Ryan (R‑WI) and his Sen­ate coun­ter­part Pat­ty Mur­ray (D‑WA) to ham­mer out a bud­get agree­ment. (Cred­it: Swamp­land Times)

Bud­get nego­tia­tors have strug­gled for near­ly two months to find agree­ment on the out­lines of a spend­ing bill that would fund the gov­ern­ment after Jan­u­ary 15.  The tar­get date for a deal is next Fri­day. They hope to meet it.

The agree­ment that con­tin­ues to elude them, if it comes at all, would be a small one. Gone are aspi­ra­tions for a “grand bar­gain” that would reform enti­tle­ments and the tax code and replace future across-the-board cuts with some­thing less mind­less. Changes to Medicare, Med­ic­aid, Social Secu­ri­ty and oth­er “manda­to­ry” spend­ing pro­grams, which togeth­er con­sti­tute 63 per­cent of non-inter­est gov­ern­ment spend­ing, are off the table.  So, too, are tax­es. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

In Washington, All Is Well

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The faces of Congressional leaders are hardly etched with joy, but they did manage to avert a fiscal crisis, even if only for a few months. [Credit: Bloomberg]

The faces of Con­gres­sion­al lead­ers are hard­ly etched with joy, but they did man­age to avert a fis­cal cri­sis, even if only for a few months. [Cred­it: Bloomberg]

Octo­ber 16, 2013, 6:00 am

All is well in Wash­ing­ton. The gov­ern­ment is spend­ing and bor­row­ing again. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Republicans Should Join Democrats in Impeding Obamacare Implementation

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Media reports indicate that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) are nearing an agreement on temporarily funding the government and increasing its borrowing authority. [Credit: Huffington Post]

Media reports indi­cate that Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Har­ry Reid (D‑NV) and Repub­li­can Leader Mitch McConnell (R‑KY) are near­ing an agree­ment on tem­porar­i­ly fund­ing the gov­ern­ment and increas­ing its bor­row­ing author­i­ty. [Cred­it: Huff­in­g­ton Post]

Octo­ber 14, 2013, 7:15 am

Sen­ate lead­ers are report­ed­ly clos­ing in on a deal that would both fund the gov­ern­ment and restore its bor­row­ing author­i­ty for a few months. The deal report­ed­ly con­tains two changes to the health care law, one pro­posed by Repub­li­cans, the oth­er by Democ­rats. The pro­vi­sion backed by Repub­li­cans is polit­i­cal­ly mis­guid­ed, unwork­able and would do lit­tle to impede the law’s imple­men­ta­tion; the pro­vi­sion backed by Democ­rats, by con­trast, appears to com­pli­cate imple­men­ta­tion of a law whose launch has so far not gone smooth­ly. Repub­li­cans who oppose Oba­macare should join Democ­rats in seek­ing changes that would dam­age its imple­men­ta­tion. Con­tin­ue read­ing →