Boehner presses for
budget vote over conservative opposition By
ANDREW TAYLOR 10/27/15
WASHINGTON (AP)
House Republican leaders
on Tuesday pushed toward a vote on a two-year budget deal despite conservative
opposition, relying on the backing of Democrats for the far-reaching pact
struck with President Barack Obama.
In his last days as
speaker, John Boehner was intent on getting the measure through Congress
quickly to head off a market-rattling debt crisis next week and a government
shutdown in December. The deal also would take budget showdowns off the table
until after the 2016 presidential and congressional elections, a potential boon
to the eventual GOP nominee and incumbents facing tough re-election fights.
"The agreement
isn't perfect by any means," but the alternative was a debt limit increase
without any entitlement reform or money for troops, Boehner told reporters.
"So this is a good deal."
The Ohio Republican also
said his goal was to "clean out the barn" for the next speaker.
"I've done my best to clean it up," he said.
A coalition of
Democrats, Republican defense hawks, and GP pragmatists appeared poised to
power the legislation into law over opposition from the tea party forces that
eased Boehner out.
"We can't stop it.
He's in league with the Democrats," Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said of
Boehner. "I mean I don't think there's anything you can do at this
point."
But Massie also said
"it's a long game" and conservatives were winning the war as they had
forced Boehner to resign.
The House budget vote
slated for Wednesday would come on the same day as the GOP caucus nominates its
candidate, widely expected to be Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan. The speaker-to-be
held off on assessing the deal, saying he had to review it, but he expressed
frustration with the rush job.
"I think this
process stinks. This is not the way to do the people's business," Ryan
said. "Under new management, we're not going to do the people's business this
way."
The two-year pact would
give both the Pentagon and domestic agencies $80 billion in relief from budget
constraints in exchange for cuts elsewhere in the budget.
The White House said
Tuesday it was "promising" that Democrats and Republicans could come
together to reach an agreement that would "break the cycle of
short-sighted, crisis-driven decision making." Capitol Hill Democrats are
likely to solidly support the agreement, which follows an outline they have
been promoting for months.
"We successfully
secured equal increases in funding defense and non-defense priorities,"
said House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. "We have extended the solvency
of Social Security Disability Insurance and protected millions of seniors from
a significant increase in their Medicare Part B premiums and deductibles next
year. Most importantly, we have affirmed that the full faith and credit of the
United States is non-negotiable and inviolable."
The legislation would
suspend the current $18.1 trillion debt limit through March 2017. The budget
portion would increase the current "caps" on total agency spending by
$50 billion in 2016 and $30 billion in 2017, offset by savings elsewhere in the
budget. And it would permit about $16 billion to be added on top of that in
2016, classified as war funding, with a comparable boost in 2017.
It also would clean up
expected problems in Social Security and Medicare by fixing a shortfall looming
next year in Social Security payments to the disabled, as well as a large
increase in Medicare premiums and deductibles for doctors' visits and other
outpatient care.
The emerging budget side
of the deal resembles a pact that Ryan fashioned two years ago in concert with
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., to ease automatic spending cuts for the 2014-15
budget years. A lot of conservatives disliked the measure and many on the GOP's
right flank are already swinging against the new one, which would apply to the
2016-17 budget years.
"I'm not excited
about it at all," Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., said of the agreement. He called
it "a two-year budget deal that raises the debt ceiling for basically the
entire term of this presidency."
Boehner was pushed aside
by conservatives in his own party after repeatedly turning to Democrats to pass
must-do legislation in an era of divided government. Many Republicans also
resented being kept in the dark. The pending deal fits both criteria.
Among the proposed
spending cuts are curbs on Medicare payments for outpatient services provided
by hospitals that have taken over doctors' practices, and an extension of a 2
percentage-point cut in Medicare payments to doctors through the end of a
10-year budget. It requires the sale of 58 million barrels of oil from the
Strategic Petroleum Reserve, cuts crop insurance payments to insurance
providers and requires new auctions of spectrum to communications companies.
The budget side of the
deal is aimed at undoing automatic spending cuts which are a byproduct of a
2011 budget and debt agreement, and the failure of Washington to subsequently
tackle the government's fiscal woes. GOP defense hawks are a driving force,
intent on reversing the automatic cuts and getting more money for the military.
A key priority for Democrats is to boost domestic programs.
The focus is on setting
a new overall spending limit for agencies with operating budgets set by
Congress each year. It will be up to the House and Senate Appropriations
committees to produce a detailed omnibus spending bill by the Dec. 11 deadline.
Associated Press writers
Alan Fram and Erica Werner contributed to this report.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20151027/us--congress-budget-fe6fe4f50f.html?AID=7236
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