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DonViejo

(60,536 posts)
Wed Apr 17, 2013, 08:54 AM Apr 2013

GOP’s Demand For Dem Budget Just Backfired Big Time

Afraid Of Their Own Shadow
GOP’s Demand For Dem Budget Just Backfired Big Time

Why Republicans Suddenly Became Afraid Of Their Own Budget Shadow

BRIAN BEUTLER APRIL 17, 2013, 6:00 AM


Republicans spent the last four years criticizing Senate Democrats for failing to pass a budget resolution, and for operating outside of what’s known as “regular order” on Capitol Hill, resorting instead to informal processes and “back room deals.” Earlier this year they even attached a rider to legislation increasing the debt ceiling that would have withheld member pay in the event that either chamber failed to pass a budget.

But now that they’ve gotten their way, and the Senate has passed a budget, suddenly they’re the ones squeamish about “regular order.” Instead of promptly appointing negotiators to convene a so-called conference committee and iron out the differences between the wildly different House and Senate budgets, House Republicans are eager to either return to the smoke-filled back rooms of legend, or kill the budget process altogether.

“We want to go to conference when we feel we have a realistic chance of getting an agreement,” Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), the GOP’s top budgeter, told reporters on Capitol Hill Tuesday, saying he wants members of both parties to take a detour and agree to a pre-conference “framework” before resuming formal negotiations. “We don’t want to conference when we have an endless process that focuses on our differences. … What we want to do is have constructive dialogues to find out where the common ground is and go to conference when we have a realistic chance of coming out with an agreement.”

To explain the about-face, consider what happens if conferees begin meeting and negotiating right away. In this phase of regular order, leadership has less control over the course of events, and pretty much everything is majority rule. Democratic negotiators will be able to relitigate the fight they won in the election. They’ll agree to entitlement spending cuts; they might even reluctantly embrace a provision in President Obama’s budget — chained CPI — that would among other things slow the growth of Social Security benefits. But only if Republicans agreed to ditch the anti-tax absolutism.

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GOP’s Demand For Dem Budget Just Backfired Big Time (Original Post) DonViejo Apr 2013 OP
As long as the Republicans control the House, there will never be a budget resolution. n/t Benton D Struckcheon Apr 2013 #1
Looks like 1 years of continuing resolutions BlueToTheBone Apr 2013 #2
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