“Fiscal cliff” discussions continue to dominate the public airwaves as the White House continues to negotiate with House Speaker Boehner (R-OH) on a possible deal. The word on the street today is that the Speaker has asked the White House for more details about its position on taxes, and the President’s team has asked the House GOP for more details about its desires on spending. This is a good sign with only three weeks to go before the Bush tax rates expire and the sequester takes effect. It is sounding more and more likely that the republicans will agree to allow tax rates to go up; the only real question is by how much and for whom. And they will certainly require any rate increase to come with serious cuts to discretionary spending and entitlement programs. Two years of fighting over how to rein in federal spending and lower national debt is now coming down to a few final weeks of deal-making. Regardless of the outcome, many of these budget-related issues will likely spill over into the next Congress.
Category: Budget
Sequester is “Uncharted Territory”
I was recently interviewed by Scientific American for an article on the impact of sequestration on NIH funding. My quote: “We are in uncharted territory if the sequester takes effect.”
Fiscal Cliff Countdown: 26 Days
Negotiations continue between the Obama administration and congressional leaders on deficit reduction legislation that would need to be approved by Congress before the end of the year to avoid the sequester and tax increases. Last week the President released his proposal, which took a hard line on both taxes and entitlement spending, with increased tax revenues accounting for the greatest share of deficit reduction. Not surprisingly, that proposal was quickly criticized by republicans who then issued a counteroffer that was much more focused on entitlement cuts, although with substantial tax revenues included as well.
For their part, congressional democrats appear increasingly unwilling to major cuts to entitlements, which have been a big driver of spending over the past few decades. The state of affairs has led to predict that the nation may well go over the cliff and leave the difficult task of cleaning up the mess when the new session of Congress convenes in January.
Meanwhile, appropriators are working toward an omnibus FY 2013 spending bill that could emerge for a vote next week. The bill would complete the appropriations cycle for the full fiscal year if agreement can be reached. The government is operating through March 2013 under a continuing resolution that sets total discretionary spending in accord with the $1.047 trillion limit agreed to in the Budget Control Act. The omnibus may adopt this spending level for the full year, although House Republicans have sought to reduce that level by $19 billion.
Herrera Beutler Joins House Appropriations Committee
The House Republican Steering Committee yesterday named six new GOP members to serve on the House Appropriations Committee in the 113th Congress, including one of our own: Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA-3). Congratulations Congresswoman Herrera Beutler!
Other new GOP members include:
Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (TN-3)
Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (NE-1)
Rep. David Joyce (OH-14)
Rep. Thomas Rooney (FL-16)
Rep. David Valadao (CA-21)
No Deal Yet to Avoid Fiscal Cliff
Today, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said that “no substantive progress has been made” on fiscal cliff negotiations, and warned that if Democrats don’t come up with a better compromise on entitlements and spending then “there’s a real danger of going off the fiscal cliff.” This confirms that talks to stave off the full range of tax increases and spending cuts at year’s end have made little apparent progress since President Obama met with congressional leaders at the White House on November 16th.
There has been some speculation the past few days that a deal is in the making, and would most likely include a tax increase totaling nearly $1.2 trillion – the middle ground of what the President wants and what Republicans say they could get enough votes to pass. Entitlement programs, mainly Medicare, would be cut by no less than $400 billion to get Republicans to swallow those tax hikes. There will be at least $1.2 trillion in spending cuts and “war savings” but details on these cuts have not yet been released. Regardless of all this speculation, any final deal will come not by a group effort but in a private deal between two men: President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner.