Government Shut Down Averted

In an 11th hour close call, a deal was finally made last night between the House and Senate that averted the first potential government shut down in 15 years.  This has rankled some of the more die hard fiscal conservatives, particularly the RedState crowd, but despite the fact that again we’re merely getting pennies in spending cuts, I think this was the appropriate outcome in the end.

Both the Republicans and the Democrats made some missteps here.  For starters, it was reported that one of the main obstacles to getting a budget deal passed was over the federal funding of Planned Parenthood.  Now I am in agreement with the Republican Party that Planned Parenthood shouldn’t receive federal funds.  A nation with $14 trillion in debt can’t afford to be funding a private organization that is large enough to surely self fund.  However, the opposition to this funding in this case wasn’t about austerity, it was about abortion.  If the GOP is insistent on making everything about this stupid abortion issue again then they are going to blow it big time and nullify the historical electoral gains they made last year.  They were elected to fix the economy and reign in our national debt, not to fight a culture war.

The Democrats also stepped in it, though the way they talk you wouldn’t think so.  The Democrats publicly made it known that a government shutdown would likely benefit them politically.  However, polling had shown that blame from the public had the shutdown occurred would have been about even across party lines.  The president also screwed up when he referred to a bill passed by the House to keep the military funded during the potential shutdown as a distraction.  Not cool.

However, for all the squawking of “bring it on” made the Dems, referring to a shutdown, the end result shows they knew it was a bad idea.  Boehner surprisingly got quite a bit of what he wanted out of of them.

All told the budget deal was peppered with Boehner’s priorities.

The hard-fought agreement calls for $38.5 billion in spending cuts from the 2011 budget – the net cut could be several billion dollars higher – which House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) described as the biggest one-year reduction in federal outlays since the United States demobilized at the end of World War II.

Controversial policy riders covering Planned Parenthood and EPA climate change regulations had threatened to sink the whole, multi-tiered agreement, but Boehner was able to shift that battle over to the Senate. Planned Parenthood funding will be debated upon and voted in the Senate, as will the repeal of the massive 2010 health-care reform package passed by Reid and then Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

In addition, “numerous studies” of the health-care bill will be ordered, the results of which could provide the GOP with juicy political ammo heading into next year’s elections. The District of Columbia will be blocked from using federal funds to pay for abortions, while the IRS will be barred from hiring additional agents. Yearly audits will be conducted by the Government Accounting Office and private industry son the impact of last year’s financial services reform package as well, a major plus for Wall Street and the banking industry.

Boehner even took care of a pet project of his own – federal funding for vouchers for D.C. public school students.

Politico

I am by no means a John Boehner fan, but he did good on this one.  Are these spending cuts going to make an ounce of difference concerning our long term fiscal situation?  Not really, but the fact that anything in D.C. gets cut at all is pretty remarkable, so this is progress.  The real fight is going to be over the 2012 budget written by Paul Ryan (R-WI) that sets our nation on a path to fiscal solvency and includes trillions of dollars in cuts.  Boehner and the GOP will now walk into that debate with a lot more capital.

Winning in Washington doesn’t happen overnight.  It’s done incrementally.  It’s easy for the tea party crowd to give Boehner and the Republicans grief for not digging their heals in waiting for 100% of their demands to be met, but had they done that, it would have backfired.  Remember, our military would not have been paid during this shutdown and one thing the American people don’t like the politicians messing with is our soldiers serving both here and abroad.  Had our soldiers and their families gone days or weeks without a paycheck because the Republicans wouldn’t cave on abortion would have been politically disastrous for them and you could have kissed goodbye any significant spending fight going into 2012.

The South Carolina Republican delegation apparently weren’t convinced, however, as they all voted against the budget.

Here is the vote breakdown concerning the passage of the budget resolution.

Voting for the Budget

• G.K. Butterfield (D-NC-01)
• Renee Ellmers (R-NC-02)
• Walter Jones (R-NC-03)
• David Price (D-NC-04)
• Virginia Foxx (R-NC-05)
• Howard Coble (R-NC-06)
• Mike McIntyre (D-NC-07)
• Larry Kissell (D-NC-08)
• Sue Myrick (R-NC-09)
• Patrick McHenry (R-NC-10)
• Heath Shuler (D-NC-11)
• Mel Watt (D-NC-12)
• Brad Miller (D-NC-13)
• Jim Clyburn (D-SC-06)

Voting Against the Budget

• Tim Scott (R-SC-01)
• Joe Wilson (R-SC-02)
• Jeff Duncan (R-SC-03)
• Trey Gowdy (R-SC-04)
• Mick Mulvaney (R-SC-05)

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