Budget Deal? What’s In the Budget Deal?

Budget Deal? 

• House GOP leaders struck a budget deal made with the WH just before midnight Monday, aimed at averting a govt shutdown and forestalling a debt crisis. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) wants Republicans to pass the hard-won deal before Rep Paul Ryan (R-Wis) assumes the speaker’s job later this week (Ryan is praying GOP goes along)

• But Boehner ran up against immediate pushback when he laid out his plan Monday night. His idea is for members to vote on the deal Wednesday. The budget pact, in concert with a must-pass increase in the federal borrowing limit, would solve a huge issue facing Ryan, who’s set to be elected speaker on Thursday. The deal has to be approved by the Senate, too

• The deal would also take budget showdowns and govt shutdown fights off the table until after the 2016 presidential election (what no more drama?), which could cause a sigh of relief to GOP candidates who might otherwise have to face awkward questions about messes in the GOP-led Congress

• Congress must raise the federal borrowing limit by 3 Nov or risk a first-ever default, while money to pay for govt operations runs out 11 Dec unless Congress acts (yes that same movie). The emerging framework would give both the Pentagon and domestic agencies two years of budget relief of $80 billion in exchange for cuts elsewhere in the budget

What’s In the Budget Deal?

• The plan was outlined for rank-and-file Republicans in a closed-door session Monday night. The budget relief would total $50 billion in the first year and $30 billion in the second year. But conservatives who pushed Boehner out: “We were told nothing about it,” said Rep John Fleming (R-La). “I’m not excited about it at all,” said Rep Matt Salmon (R-Ariz) (hey ho)

• The measure would suspend the current $18.1 trillion debt limit through March 2017. The budget side of the deal is aimed at undoing automatic spending cuts which are a byproduct of a 2011 budget and debt deal and the failure of DC to subsequently tackle the govt’s fiscal woes. GOP defense hawks are pushing for more money for the Pentagon

• The tentative pact anticipates designating further increases for the Pentagon as emergency war funds that can be made exempt from budget caps. There’s also a drawdown from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, reforms to crop insurance and savings reaped from a DoJ fund for crime victims

• Offsetting spending cuts that would pay for domestic spending increases includes curbs on certain Medicare payments for outpatient services provided by hospitals and an extension of a 2% point cut in Medicare payments to doctors through the end of a 10-year budget

• Negotiators also looked to address a shortfall looming next year in Social Security payments to the disabled and a large increase for many retirees in Medicare premiums and deductibles for doctors’ visits and other outpatient care. The deal would make good on a promise Boehner made to “clean the barn up a little bit before the next person gets here.”

(AP, Hill, NYT, Bloomberg, Politico, me)