Funding at current levels until 1/15 and debt ceiling raise until 2/7. Nothing much given in return but now that the gun has been put down and the hostages released (assuming the House passes it) serious budget (and other) talks can be had.
Seems to me that the GOP is a bit screwed in those talks so long as the Democrats offer anything in way of compromise. I cannot imagine that even the TPers would want to pull this shit again in 3 months, when the mid terms are no longer so far away. And those who are not TP are and will be in serious damage control mode. The relatively short timeline pushes their backs against the wall to get serious with real give and take deal making before then.
I wish I could have some optimism. I hope some of the GOP has learned their lesson, and figured out this brinksmanship isn’t good for the country and isn’t getting them what they want, anyway. At least not when they push things too far and look like douches when they make it all about the ACA and national monuments.
As far as “nothing much given in return,” it’s sobering to realize how much the left/Democrats have already given up in the budget end of things. Do you realize the current levels of spending - the levels agreed to in this extension - are lower than those proposed in Paul Ryan’s original budget? And these numbers are now assumed to be the starting point for negotiations on a long-term agreement.
The GOP has pretty much won this cutting-spending thing (not so much with this current Ted “Pablo” Cruz careen toward the cliff, but more because of the 2011 brinksmanship where Obama folded and then with everyone letting the sequester go into effect last spring). If they hadn’t made this last two weeks all about the evils of OBAMACARE!!! who knows how much more they might have ended up with?
The Republican Party does not make rational decisions. Predicting that they won’t do something because it would be stupid of them is a losing bet. How many times do we need to see this sort of thing happen before that becomes clear?
A cute clip and I agree that this shit won’t be pulled again for a long while, especially not in 3 months. But that does not answer the question; it merely agrees with the premise.
I’m already on record expecting the GOP to “get” Keystone (hopefully with some environmental controls thrown in) and some movement on Social Security. Take away medical devices tax only with a new funding source thrown in. Come to a better plan than the sequester? No more cuts but maybe some dickering. Thing is the GOP needs to leave showing they got something and the Democrats can afford to make that something be relatively weak sauce … they’d be foolish to not offer anything though.
I am no expert at reading bills, but Section 1002, titled “Default Protection Act of 2013” seems to say that Congress must pass now a bill to stop an increase in the debt limit.
I believe this originated with Senator McConnell during the 2011 debt crisis but was never adopted (until now).
So, in the future we won’t have to do this dance of attempted extortion with the debt limit. If it must be raised to cover what Congress has decided to spend, it will be raised. There is now a strictly described procedure and time limit for congress to enact a bill to stop the increase. This of course can be vetoed, so in effect only a two thirds vote can stop an increase in the debt limit.
Might be a good idea, since it would seem to avoid debt limit showdowns like we’ve just seen.
But, as described in the above-linked L. A. Times article, it is engineered to make Democrats look bad every time. The way it will apparently will work would be something like this:
[ul]
[li] Republicans introduce bill to NOT raise debt limit.[/li][li] Republicans overtly vote to NOT raise debt limit. This passes. This, presumably, makes Pubs look good. (Depends who you ask, I suppose.)[/li][li] Democrats oppose this, overtly voting to raise debt limit. This, presumably, makes Dems look baaaaaaaaad.[/li][li] At least with the current Congress, this will die in the Senate every time. Senate Dems look baaaaaaaaad.[/li][li] But if it passes there and goes to Obama, he will veto it. Obama looks baaaaaaaaad.[/li][li] Bill returns to Congress for possible veto override. Pubs vote for override. Pubs look good. Dems vote against override. Dems look baaaaaaaaad.[/li][li] Override fails, of course. Debt limit is increased. Dems look baaaaaaaaad.[/li][/ul]
Now, how often does this drama get re-played? Just once a year? If every budget deal is good for just a month or two or six weeks, does this whole charade get re-played every time? Do the Republicans play this game every six hours for the next year, like they did with repealing ACA, just to try to make Dems chronically look bad?
Expect at least three more House votes to repeal Obamacare before Christmas. Then the CR will be within a day of expiration when another last minute deal is brokered.
I don’t believe that an automatic increase in the debt limit would make the Democrats look bad. The fear of default has probably educated the public somewhat and raising the debt limit isn’t necessarily going to be seen as holy shit they’re wasting our money.
It seems to me that the McConnell rule is the biggest win the Democrats get out of this - they’ve more or less made it impossible for a minority to use the threat of default as leverage in the future.
I’ve gained a lot of respect for Mitch McConnell. Because he did the right thing and sat down with Harry Reid and banged out an agreement, he’s going to get primaried from the right and very well could lose. He could have pre-empted a primary challenge by refusing to negotiate in good faith, but he put his career on the line for the good of the nation. Well done, Mr. McConnell.
I’ve been watching a bit of Fox and Friends because I wanted to see how they were taking things. They do not appear to have learned anything at all and vow to continue the fight against this horrible Obama Care.
I think a lot depends on how the sign ups go. If they get the bugs out of the web site and people can generally get decent coverage at a fair price, things will be better.
He was going to get a stiff challenge from the right anyway, but yes, he made his choice here and wound up doing the right thing.
Here’s what I see: yes, the far right is going to insist they won this fight and I wouldn’t be surprised if their supporters continue to believe that. They have established a position that is impervious to reality: ‘everyone supports us, there can be no bad consequences to anything we do, and everyone who doesn’t agree is a coward and a liar.’ But it’s harder for them to get what they want. They can’t use the debt ceiling anymore, and this shows that there are limits to how far Congressional Republicans will go get what they want. They can’t use the threat of a shutdown again because Democrats successfully called that bluff. Now they’ll sit down and have the budget conference Democrats have wanted for months, and if they did want to try to pull the shutdown thing again, they’d be doing it even closer to an election. We’re not out of perpetual phony crisis mode, but it’s an improvement.
I can’t blame the Republicans too much for this last shutdown/debt ceiling event. After all, nothing in recent politics would have indicated that the Democrats would be organized and united on any issue.
