If you were counting on the GOP to be gutsy about the next budget deal (I wasn’t), get ready to be disappointed.
Fox News reports:
Fiscal hawks were most concerned about signs that lawmakers could move to chip away at a 2011 budget pact, considered by conservatives to be the most significant deficit-trimming legislation of the past five years. Lawmakers are said to be considering restoring some of the funding hit by the so-called sequester and raising spending levels above the $967 billion level set in the 2011 deal.
If the GOP goes that route, it will be a disgrace. Not only will Republicans be sitting out the big battles of tax reform, entitlement reform, and legitimate spending cuts, but they’ll be tossing the one good thing they have accomplished out the window.
Once again, the philosophy of “getting a deal” will take precedence over “getting a good deal.”
Once again, the absolute terror of a partial government shutdown will be greater than the terror of our over $17 trillion debt.
And once again, it will be more important to them to preserve the appearance of working together rather than the reality of fighting for solutions that will try to fix the debt, entitlement, and tax disasters at hand.
Lori Montgomery of The Washington Post reports:
The deal expected to be sealed this week on Capitol Hill would not significantly reduce the debt, now $17.3 trillion and rising. It would not close corporate tax loopholes or reform expensive health-care and retirement programs. It would not even fully replace sharp spending cuts known as the sequester, the negotiators’ primary target.
In other words, from what I’m seeing now, it will likely be a joke. Sure, it will be drama-free–no shutdown, no blame game, no pointing fingers. The problem? It will also be solution-free.
GOP, what do you stand for again? Why should voters choose you? What makes you different from the Democrats? When you figure that out, and figure out how to fight for it, you let us know.
Follow Jedediah on Twitter @JedediahBila
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