In the wake of a new budget deal being passed, a few things have been made absolutely clear while other things have been met with some sort of muddled confusion when the Senate passed the bipartisan budget deal Wednesday that is supposed to help Washington return to some form of fiscal order.
When analyzed, it would seem as though the deal isn’t all too loved when it comes to the Republican party. Though the GOP seems to be forgetting a few things from Senate budget deal’s past, especially for a party that seems to pride itself on its financial savvy. Members of the Appropriations Committee voted “no” on Thursday on the idea that the risen cap of $491.8 billion for non-defense discretionary spending in 2014 noting that it’s too high.
However, this does seem a tad ironic as when George W. Bush was president in 2008, the same members of the Republican Party voted for a budget deal that added up to a considerable amount more (after adjustments for inflation).
According to the Office of Management and Budget, it was a passed in December of 2007 in time for a spring supplement in June 2008. The final total for the fiscal year of 2008 for non-defense spending reached $493.7 billion.
The budget agreement, in a simplified version of the overly complicated agreement, tries to cut 1 percent from the annual cost-of-living increases that apply to pension. The cut would then only apply to retirees up until their 62nd birthday, a date chosen by a “rough proxy” of the “working age.”
The writers of the legislation and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel both agree that changes will need to be made to correct the inadvertent impact on individuals with disabilities.
When the budget deal was being written, Republican members of the Armed Services and Appropriations committees stated they would not be in support of any bill that continued spending limits to their “favorite programs.” The GOP openly opposes the bill, many media outlets noting that it’s like them lobbying for another government shutdown.
However, given the aversion felt by the House Republicans’ to another shutdown, it’s not easy to calculate a way that the caucus’s more moderate members would have let one happen. What’s more likely to happen is for legislation to fund the government and uphold the caps. The deal itself helps pave the way for a path to avoid a future government shutdown. So the GOP seems to be at an impasse, wanting to avoid a shutdown but not really rallying for this budget deal.
Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pointed out that the Appropriations committees will be working through Christmas to ready a spending bill by the time the lawmakers return in January. “The bargain rolls back the painful cuts of the sequester, including devastating cuts to education, medical research, infrastructure investments and defense jobs,” Reid said, noting that “this isn’t a perfect bargain.”
At the end of the day on Wednesday, Senate Republicans tried to vent frustrations during the hours of debate before the final vote. Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, one of the top Republicans on the Budget Committee, forced a vote on Tuesday that would have opened up the budget agreement to changes, if it had passed.
The GOP is decidedly unhappy with the budget deal and will be seeking ways to restructure once lawmakers return in January.
Ian Proegler
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