Budget debate was fought entirely on the GOP’s turf
By Greg Sargent
Washpost
Updated below with the Dem perspective.
So at the 11th hour, House GOPers and Senate Dems struck a deal to cut $37.8 billion from the budget for the remainder of the 2011 fiscal year, while getting rid of the Planned Parenthood rider that had been at the center of the final standoff. A few quick thoughts about the deal.
* The GOP got more than it originally asked for. The original budget proposal submitted by Republicans called for $32 billion in cuts, until House conservatives demanded significantly more. Boehner ended up winning over $5 billion more than he originally asked for, even as he derided Dems who had agreed to his own original target figure as fundamentally unserious about spending.
* Boehner essentially won his first test with conservatives. From the outset, Boehner’s game plan was obvious: His intention was to drag this out as long as possible, and bring us as close to the brink of a shutdown as possible, in order to make it easier to sell the final compromise to conservatives who are insisting on a deeply unhinged amount of cuts. He can now quite credibly tell conservatives that he proved his willingness to engage in white-knuckled brinkmanship until the very last minute to put maximum pressure on the White House — which never wanted a shutdown — in order to extract maximum concessions.
Sure, some conservatives are grumbling about the final deal, and one Tea Party group is threatening to primary Boehner. But as Paul Kane notes today, it’s unclear how widespread conservative unhappiness will be in the end. Boehner has a simple message to them: By taking it to the brink and winning more than we originally asked for, we put Dems on notice that we’re dead serious about taking it to the edge of armageddon again in the bigger fights to come, when the stakes will be far higher. It remains to be seen whether unrealistic conservative expectations will pose a larger problem for Boehner in later fights, but it seems clear that Boehner pulled off a very good play under difficult circumstances, likely rendering short-term conservative grumbling mostly a non-factor. The big story here — one that I believe conservatives will ultimately agree with — is that Boehner largely dictated the terms of this debate.
(More here.)
Washpost
Updated below with the Dem perspective.
So at the 11th hour, House GOPers and Senate Dems struck a deal to cut $37.8 billion from the budget for the remainder of the 2011 fiscal year, while getting rid of the Planned Parenthood rider that had been at the center of the final standoff. A few quick thoughts about the deal.
* The GOP got more than it originally asked for. The original budget proposal submitted by Republicans called for $32 billion in cuts, until House conservatives demanded significantly more. Boehner ended up winning over $5 billion more than he originally asked for, even as he derided Dems who had agreed to his own original target figure as fundamentally unserious about spending.
* Boehner essentially won his first test with conservatives. From the outset, Boehner’s game plan was obvious: His intention was to drag this out as long as possible, and bring us as close to the brink of a shutdown as possible, in order to make it easier to sell the final compromise to conservatives who are insisting on a deeply unhinged amount of cuts. He can now quite credibly tell conservatives that he proved his willingness to engage in white-knuckled brinkmanship until the very last minute to put maximum pressure on the White House — which never wanted a shutdown — in order to extract maximum concessions.
Sure, some conservatives are grumbling about the final deal, and one Tea Party group is threatening to primary Boehner. But as Paul Kane notes today, it’s unclear how widespread conservative unhappiness will be in the end. Boehner has a simple message to them: By taking it to the brink and winning more than we originally asked for, we put Dems on notice that we’re dead serious about taking it to the edge of armageddon again in the bigger fights to come, when the stakes will be far higher. It remains to be seen whether unrealistic conservative expectations will pose a larger problem for Boehner in later fights, but it seems clear that Boehner pulled off a very good play under difficult circumstances, likely rendering short-term conservative grumbling mostly a non-factor. The big story here — one that I believe conservatives will ultimately agree with — is that Boehner largely dictated the terms of this debate.
(More here.)
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