Friday, October 18, 2013

POLITICS - Let New Federal Budget Talks Begin Again (After Three Years of Stalemate)

"Two Parties Start Work to Avoid Repeat Crisis" by JONATHAN WEISMAN and JACKIE CALMES, New York Times 10/17/2013

Excerpt

With the government reopened and a debt default averted for now, Congressional negotiators on Thursday plunged into difficult budget talks to avoid a repeat crisis within months, and quickly agreed to lower their sights from the sort of grand bargain that has eluded the two parties for three years.

After approval late Wednesday of the agreement ending the standoff, the deal-making mantle shifted overnight from the leaders of the Senate to the Budget Committee leaders, Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, and Representative Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, two less senior lawmakers who nonetheless could make very effective salespeople since they command loyal followings in their parties.  The political pressure lifted as well, for now.

But the need for a bipartisan breakthrough, even a modest one, was amplified by the economic costs wrought by the 16-day shutdown and near-default on government obligations.

“The key now is a budget that cuts out the things that we don’t need, closes corporate tax loopholes that don’t help create jobs, and frees up resources for the things that do help us grow — like education and infrastructure and research,” President Obama said Thursday from the White House, setting ambitious goals for Congress even as his own role in the bargaining was unclear.

The question of what a new House-Senate budget conference can deliver by its Dec. 13 deadline — in time for Congress to act by Jan. 15 on funding to keep the government open — remained the subject of deep skepticism, well earned by past failures at reaching so-called grand bargains for deficit reduction and spending investments in the past three years.

With the scope of the talks narrowed for now, on the table are ideas left over from past, failed bargaining: possible reductions in other programs — like farm subsidies, federal pensions, the Postal Service and unemployment insurance — and relatively minimal tax loophole closings, possibly as little as $55 billion.

While there is nonetheless hope on both sides for a defining budget deal, the three-week budget crisis scrambled Washington’s power structure.

Democrats, united throughout, believe they enter this next round far stronger, backed by a president who proved his own resolve.  Republicans, having played their trump card by shutting down the government, are weakened and more divided than ever.

Reflecting his party’s chastened state heading into the next phase, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, told the conservative National Review on Thursday, “A government shutdown is off the table.”

Even so, Republicans enter these new talks with one advantage: if the negotiations fail, the next round of across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration will hit automatically, even deeper than the first.  Democrats want to avoid that far more than Republicans do.

Fat chance as long as the Republican Party serves ONLY the rich and shafts the lower and middle class citizen.


"Short-term spending deal reopens government, sets stage for budget battle ahead" PBS Newshour 10/17/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The U.S. government went back to work after Congress passed a bill that ended a 16-day shutdown and temporarily raised the debt ceiling.  President Obama called on lawmakers to work together, while a small budget group began meeting in hopes of reaching a long-term solution.  Congressional correspondent Kwame Holman reports.

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