It's A Deal: Dems, Republicans Strike Spending Deal To Avoid Government Shutdown

[ProSense]

It's A Deal: Dems, Republicans Strike Spending Deal To Avoid Government Shutdown

Brian Beutler

They've got a deal!

Their negotiations have teetered erratically on the brink of collapse for weeks. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker John Boehner have finally shaken hands on a spending bill to fund the government through September and avoid a government shutdown.

"We have agreed to an historic amount of cuts for the remainder of this fiscal year, as well as a short-term bridge that will give us time to avoid a shutdown while we get that agreement through both houses and to the President," read a joint statement from both leaders. "We will cut $78.5 billion below the President's 2011 budget proposal, and we have reached an agreement on the policy riders. In the meantime, we will pass a short-term resolution to keep the government running through Thursday. That short-term bridge will cut the first $2 billion of the total savings."

Despite the violent sturm und drang surrounding these negotiations -- including familiar, but tired accusations by Republicans of Democratic infidelity to U.S. troops -- the final deal looks uncannily like the framework the two sides have been working with since the middle of March.

It includes cuts to both mandatory and discretionary spending, and does not include a rider that would have defunded Planned Parenthood -- the final sticking point in the negotiations. Republicans have been promised up-or-down floor votes in the Senate on riders to defund Planned Parenthood and health care implementation.

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[MiniMe]

1. They will be voting tonight on a continuing resolution

That will go thru next Thursday. We have yet to see what the final bill will look like. Boner, Reid, and the President may have agreed not to defund title 10 spending, but the House will still have to vote on the new bill. We may be going through the same thing next Thursday.

[vroomvroom]

2. No Surprise here. I called it. nt

[KT2000]

3. Oh that's right

let's just all get along.
As long as we protect the sacred tax cuts for the wealthy.
Democrats should hanf their heads in shame.

[Blaukraut]

4. The extent of the cuts pretty much guarantees an end to the recovery

which is what the republicans were jonesing for in the first place.

[high density]

5. Republicans got a deal, Democrats got fucked once again

This is so much fun. Fucked under Bush, fucking continues under Obama.

[ProSense]

7. Ridiculous!

I'm pissed about them helping the GOP to save face with those bullshit votes, but Boehner got nothing.

The teabaggers are probably going to call for his head.

[earthside]

8. They got 80 percent of what they wanted.

By Sunday that is how the Repuglicans and the Teabaggers and the political pundits will be calling it.

Obama is increasingly being perceived as weak and accommodating -- by the time of the debt ceiling vote, the President will be in the position of having to give-up another 80 percent of whatever the Repuglicans demand. (And now they know just how far they can push and how much Obama will give.)

Just wait and see ... by next week Boehner will be hailed as one of the great Speakers by the very teabaggers who are grumbling tonight.

[earthside]

9. And they are getting an 'abortion rider'.

It may not be a federal rider, but it gets the Teabaggers and Repuglicans foot in the door:
Budget deal includes D.C. abortion rider, money for school vouchers-Washington Post

[ProSense]

11. "80 percent of what they wanted"?

They had dozens of EPA riders.

They were all dropped.

[Mickeyc1004]

6. I'm proud of Obama and the democrats.

I don't think that they had any other choice, seeing as the republicans are in charge. I'm glad they held out for planned parenthood and the EPA.

If they had caved on planned parenthood, I would have been truly irate. I don't yet know what the other cuts look like so I can't give a full opinion one way or the other, but so far I'm proud.


I think a shut down would have been a disaster, but if it had come down to planned parenthood being defunded I would have been angry if they had caved.

[craigmatic]

10. Well at least we got planned parenthood in one piece. Obama still gave away too much though.

[golfguru]

12. How much was the military cut?

That is as discretionary as it gets.