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US Finally Gets a Budget. Maybe?

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  • US Finally Gets a Budget. Maybe?

    Rep. Ryan, (R-Wis) the Budget Committee chairman and his Senate counterpart, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash) submitted a draft budget a day ago to howls from some conservatives in Congress and conservative think tanks. The bill is expected to pass the House and Senate with bipartisan support, although Tea Party favorites Rubio, Paul, Cruz and others will probably vote against it.

    Ryan's role in crafting the budget is as much a story as the budget. I am big fan of Ryan, even though his 'other' budget proposals suffered from excessive conservative purity. This time he's operating in the real world with apparent disdain for his political fortunes. That takes courage. Of course, he probably had the backing of the House and Senate leadership before he publicly announced the budget.



    U.S. Budget Deal Puts Ryan in Spotlight Once Again

    If Deal Passes House, He Can Cast Himself as Successful Political Leader and Policy Thinker


    By
    Patrick O'Connor and
    Kristina Peterson

    WASHINGTON—Like some of his GOP colleagues, Rep. Matt Salmon of Arizona plans to vote against the two-year budget deal because it raises federal spending caps. But while he criticizes the agreement, Mr. Salmon praises the man who negotiated it on behalf of House Republicans, Rep. Paul Ryan.

    How might Rep. Paul Ryan's fortunes change should the budget agreement he helped negotiate pass? Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty discusses on the News Hub.

    "He wasn't like a used-car salesman, trying to tell us everything about it was perfect," Mr. Salmon said Wednesday after Mr. Ryan explained the deal. "He started out by acknowledging, 'Is this a perfect deal? Far from it.' "

    Mr. Ryan has more riding on the success of the budget deal than anyone in Congress. The Republican nominee for vice president last year may be able to count the agreement, if it passes the House, as an accomplishment to take into a potential run for president in 2016. But it also gives fellow conservatives an avenue to question his budget-cutting credentials.
    More

    So far, the response from the most conservative GOP lawmakers has been good news for Mr. Ryan, the Budget Committee chairman who struck the deal with his Senate counterpart, Sen. Patty Murray (D., Wash.). The number of GOP House members who said Wednesday they would vote against the deal didn't appear large enough to sink the agreement. And there was little sign their opposition was extending to Mr. Ryan personally.

    "This doesn't do anything but raise his stature," said Rep. Tom Cole (R., Okla.), one of four House Republicans on the 29-member negotiating panel led by Mr. Ryan and Ms. Murray.

    Mr. Ryan has long been known as a policy specialist and his party's chief budget architect. He wrote ambitious budget blueprints that sought to reshape Medicare, lower tax rates and cut spending on a range of programs. Now, he will be able to cast himself as not just a policy thinker but a successful political leader if the deal is adopted.

    By helping to calm the chaotic budgeting process, Mr. Ryan would guide the GOP past the political land mine of another government shutdown and allow Republicans to keep the focus next year on the Affordable Care Act, which is damaging the political standing of President Barack Obama and his party ahead of the 2014 elections.

    The moment marks a change in Mr. Ryan's profile from the last budget debate: He had remained nearly silent publicly in September as his party tried to defund the health law and sparked a partial government shutdown, telling colleagues quietly that it was the wrong course.

    But the new budget deal also has the potential to diminish Mr. Ryan's stature among the most fiscally conservative Republicans. They want to preserve automatic spending cuts set to take effect next year, which they say brought discipline to budgeting and which Mr. Ryan's deal scales back.

    Opponents include Heritage Action, the political arm of the Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based think tank that helped nurture Mr. Ryan's rise to the national stage and which opposes candidates deemed to be insufficiently conservative.

    Detractors also include Sens. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) and Rand Paul (R. Ky.), who like Mr. Ryan are potential candidates for president in 2016. In opposing the deal, Messrs. Rubio and Paul are drawing a policy distinction that could become a meaningful point of debate in GOP primaries. "It's a huge mistake to trade sequester cuts now for the promise of cuts later," Mr. Paul said Wednesday.

    The agreement raises the cap on federal spending for most domestic and defense programs to $1.012 trillion in the current fiscal year, up from $967 billion. It also allows a roughly $62 billion increase in spending this year and the following fiscal year. Mr. Ryan argues the pact achieves GOP deficit-reduction goals, nonetheless, by making certain cuts and other changes that would result in a net deficit reduction of more than $22 billion over a decade.

    "As a conservative, I deal with the situation as it exists," he said Tuesday night. "I passed three budgets in a row that reflect my priorities and my principles and everything I want to accomplish. We're in divided government. I realized I'm not going to get that."

    David Winston, a GOP pollster who advises House GOP leaders, saw benefits to Mr. Ryan's role. "After watching the government shutdown, what people want to see is just to put some points on the board," he said. "If you're somebody in that position to move things forward and make some progress, that's something to be viewed favorably."

    —Siobhan Hughes contributed to this article.

    U.S. Budget Deal Puts Ryan in Spotlight Once Again - WSJ.com
    Last edited by JAD_333; 12 Dec 13,, 07:52.
    To be Truly ignorant, Man requires an Education - Plato

  • #2
    House passed the budget by an overwhelming majority. Senate takes it up next week. More and more talk that the budget may spur the economy, confidence-wise. Gold drops on the news and the dollar strengthens.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...e-budget-bill/


    Budget Deal Is a Tipping Point for the US Economic Recovery | TIME.com
    Last edited by JAD_333; 13 Dec 13,, 05:25.
    To be Truly ignorant, Man requires an Education - Plato

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    • #3
      I was happy to see The Speaker tell off those who were pressing to torpedo the deal. Just like I am glad the Dems who objected ending of the unemplyment insurance benefits swallowed hard and concurred with the bill.

      I am not optimistic but, perhaps, its a start of the beginning of governance in Washington and less politics.

      One can hope.
      “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
      Mark Twain

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      • #4
        Hmmm, 2 posts and so many links and caps.
        No such thing as a good tax - Churchill

        To make mistakes is human. To blame someone else for your mistake, is strategic.

        Comment


        • #5
          http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/12/us...tachments.html

          Boehner should be congratulated for finally forcibly injecting some degree of sanity into the House GOP.

          although it's telling that his reason for doing the right thing is not so much because it's the right thing...but because the various GOP factions in the House couldn't decide on which hostage to take.
          There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov

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          • #6
            This sums up how I feel....

            Attached Files
            “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
            Mark Twain

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