House Republicans signal support for budget deal
Source: AP-EXCITE
By ANDREW TAYLOR
WASHINGTON (AP) - House Republicans signaled support Wednesday for a budget deal worked out a day earlier, a plan narrowly drawn but promoted as a way to stabilize Congress' erratic fiscal efforts, avert another government shutdown and mute some of the partisan rancor that has damaged Americans' attitudes about their lawmakers.
"There's a lot to like about it," said one GOP congressman, John Fleming of Louisiana, as he emerged from a closed-door caucus meeting.
Still, GOP critics said the measure would increase deficits for the next three years and complained that about half of its deficit savings would come near the end of its 10-year projections. Higher interest costs are likely to erode some of the $23 billion in deficit reduction lauded by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan. The Congressional Budget Office has yet to issue an official estimate of the plan's impact on the federal deficit.
But other supporters insisted the plan, while imperfect, is at least a step in the right direction.
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House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, left, joined by House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., takes reporters' questions, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013, as House Republicans signaled support for a budget deal worked out yesterday between Ryan and Senate Budget Committee Chair Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. The budget deal was one of a few major measures left on Congress' to-do list near the end of a bruising year that has produced a partial government shutdown, a flirtation with a first-ever federal default and gridlock on President Obama's agenda. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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