Striving to end a cycle of crisis, congressional leaders and the White House united Tuesday behind an ambitious budget and debt deal aimed at restoring a semblance of order to Capitol Hill and ending the threat of government shutdowns and defaults until well after a new president takes office.
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The good news for Ryan, who might worry the same fate awaits him, is that Boehner’s image trajectory among his home team is hardly the norm, in fact it’s the worst of the last four U.S. House speakers.
After a Tuesday morning meeting where GOP lawmakers played a video montage feting Boehner, the Ohio Republican expressed confidence that the deal would be passed Wednesday.
One conservative leader, Rep. Bill Flores, R-Texas, predicted the budget compromise would get 70 to 90 GOP votes, which seemed sufficient for passage when combined with what is expected to be solid support from Democrats.
Presumptive House Speaker Paul Ryan’s harsh criticism of the deal could constitute lip service to the extremist “Freedom Caucus” that made Mr. Boehner’s life miserable and sabotaged so many compromises that would have benefited the nation as a whole, regardless of party membership.
“I didn’t want him to walk into a dirty barn full of you-know-what”.
“I’ve done my best to clean it up”, Boehner said.
Still, Ryan is unhappy with the secretive, top-level process, and says he’ll operate differently as speaker. At the same time they pointed to strong policy differences as shown in a budget he produced in 2011 that contained plans to cut social programs as well as turn Medicare into a voucher-like program and Medicaid into block grants to states.
But the House appeared likely to approve the legislation and send it to the Senate, relying on a majority of Democratic votes, a feature of a number of significant deals cut under Boehner’s leadership.
The agreement would raise the government’s borrowing limit through March of 2017, averting an unprecedented default just days away. Congressional appropriators would then have to fill in the details before the current spending agreement runs out on December 11. That change was projected to save the government $5 billion.
The $80 billion increase amounts to a little more than 1 percent per year of the almost $4 trillion annual federal budget, but it carries the significance of breaking through agreed-upon spending caps that Republicans had praised as a rare display of responsible cost control and Democrats had criticized as a drag on economic growth. It also replenishes the Social Security Disability Insurance fund before it dips in the red in the upcoming months. Steps were taken to avoid premium spikes next year for Medicare Part B recipients.
President Barack Obama said the budget deal “reflects our values” and responsibly pays for investments in the middle class and national security.
“The most important thing we can do for the Republican presidential nominee is to make sure, frankly, we’re not an issue in his or her campaign next year”.
“Fiscal negotiations are ongoing”, said Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) as he opened the Senate.
Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., who is a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, had posted his annoyance earlier, saying, “It’s another “govern by crisis” deal that doesn’t reflect the will of the House but rather the will of the speaker”.
Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Fla., said that commitment to family is real for Ryan. He is first and foremost a policy wonk, and he is a committee chairman.
One of the conservatives, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., complained of the deal and Boehner: “We can’t stop it. He’s in league with the Democrats”.
But Massie also said “it’s a long game” and conservatives are winning the war as they have forced Boehner to resign.
The budget vote slated for Wednesday would come on the same day the GOP caucus nominates its candidate, widely expected to be Ryan.
“I think we’ll be in a good place”, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-California, said Tuesday night. “When you get a bipartisan agreement in a town that isn’t known for a lot of bipartisanship”, he said, “you’re going to see bricks flying from people who don’t like that it’s a bipartisan agreement”. “It is disgusting. It’s hard for me not to use profanity describing it”. If so, that could indicate Mr. Ryan is politically savvy or it could mean that he would stand up Republicans who constitute a minority of the House. But many say he is easy to work with – a quality that could serve him well in the unruly House.
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Rep. Carlos Curbelo, a Florida Republican who is supporting Jeb Bush for president, called the deal a net win.
