Just remember this: crafting a budget deal is part of the art of responsible governing. It may not be fully to our liking in all its parts, but having a budget agreement is necessary to the functioning of our social order, including making provisions for the military/armed forces. I hope that this will continue to be hammered into something better as the process goes along, and I trust Speaker Pelosi and others to take their best shot at doing just that. Conversely, sitting on our hands and refusing to play the game at all doesn’t seem like a good enough option if it means the country loses.
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President Obama signed it. And Pelosi is a big fan of PAYGO.
You may recall President Obama wanted a clean bill on the debt ceiling. The Republicans refused, and almost drove us to the point of a national default.
At the last moment Sen. McConnell came up with a plan for a Budget Supercommittee, comprised of members of each party, to hammer out budget compromises, or face the sword of Damocles: the budget sequester, which would feature steep across the board budget cuts for both the military and domestic programs.
Republicans agreed, arguing that the threat of both oxes being gored would motivate both sides to negotiate and compromise in good faith.
But predictably, the Republicans shot down every attempt at a compromise, and the sequester went into effect.
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I can’t believe you morons are acting like this is a good deal.
It’s amazing that the only time Nancy doesn’t think the politics of an issue are what matters is when she’s giving away the store so that Trump and republicans don’t have to answer any questions on the budget, debt limit, etc. until after the election. Congrats dems, you now officially own the ballooning deficit and will do so after you get Trump reelected by tacitly conceding that he’s done nothing wrong, by refusing to take any risks to hold him accountable.
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Morons? Owning the deficit?
The proposed deal includes $27 billion in additional domestic spending, and $22 billion in additional defense spending. Hardly compares to the trillions that will be added to the debt as a result of the Trump/Republican tax cut.
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Just remember this: crafting a budget deal is part of the art of responsible governing
This is the part that confuses me a bit. Is there not already a budget in place? My impression is that there is a budget deal already in place and this is some constraint trigger that is forcing them to signoff and/or renegotiate the budget? If that correct?
Folks close to dem leadership. Whoever released that partial poll to Axios. Those people.
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Get the Republicans in the Senate to agree to it. We’ll wait.
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A Budget Deal Has Been Reached — Now We Wait And See If
TrumpAnn Coulter Scuttles It
FIFY!
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Weren’t they just negotiating or something? What were the choices? Kick the can 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, or, I’ve got it, 2 years, just in time to stall the new dem POTUS’s momentum.
Do we just assume the republicans are better at this?
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They were negotiating. And there’s no way anything gets agreed on if that’s one of the terms. It would’ve been like Nancy saying ‘oh, and Trump has to resign.’
So you’re saying that a debt limit extension of 1 year instead of 2 would have been like asking for Trump to resign. OK.
I must have missed – when did Democrats get the majority in the Senate that would allow them to do away with the debt ceiling?
I must have missed, when did the GOP get a majority in the House to place the next debt ceiling crisis 6 months into the next dem POTUS’s term?
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‘Like’, as in ‘similar to’, in that neither one would have gotten any traction at all or have had any chance of success, yes.
Then we suck at this.
I know federal employees who were looking forward to the next Trump shutdown because the last one was essentially a free vacation. He still might do it, you never know.
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You seem confused both about the process of passing the laws and differences between the two parties. Here is what you asked:
That would require passing a corresponding law both in the Senate or the House with veto proof majorities, which is not possible in the moment because GOP would be more than willing to cause default and the resulting economic disaster.
Absent the possibility of a complete abolition of debt limit the choices were between short term and medium term extension. Yes, Democrats might have gained a political benefit from a short term extension – if they were willing to threaten federal default and economic catastrophe at the end of that extension. I, for one, am happy that there is one party in this country which is not willing to threaten the economic calamity for a short term political benefit.
Moreover, medium term extension already benefits Democrats: first, they got some economic concessions for it; second, if there is a Democrat in WH after 2020, Democrats will be in a much stronger position then they are now, holding Presidency and presumably at least the House. In fact, it is possible that Dems also win the Senate in which case debt ceiling will be a non-issue.
So in summary, GOP did not need a majority in the House because the medium term extension was not a GOP win but a satisfactory result for the Democrats.
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GOP would do this while the economy is the only thing giving Trump hope of being elected?
Yeah, no.
I did not realize you think GOP acts rationally…
You are wrong and yes, they would be willing to cause the default (and try to blame Dems for it).
Moreover, to even test the GOP recklessness, Democrats would have to credibly threaten the default and the resulting economic catastrophe. And that would make Democrats no better than GOP on this issue.
As I said, we have some hope for recovery as long as at least one national party puts country’s interests over their own short term political benefits. Had Democrats used GOP tactics that hope would have been gone.
P.S. Btw, if you look at history, at the times when GOP was the one threatening defaults it was not that GOP won standoffs so much as that it simply was not punished by voters for their actions. The “wins” GOP achieved in those cases were not comparable to the risks for the country they were willing to take.