Paul Ryan's Budget Deal
A bit late on this one, but- Paul Ryan's first budget deal was made earlier in the month.
Conservatives also lost on their most well-publicized demands that have dominated cable news. Language restricting Syrian and Iraqi refugee resettlement, defunding Planned Parenthood, or blocking President Obama’s executive actions on immigration will not be included.
Conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus, who have said at various points that they would not vote for a spending bill that funded either Planned Parenthood or Syrian and Iraqi refugee resettlement, are sticking to their word. Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the Freedom Caucus, does not expect his group to support to omnibus and doesn’t even expect that many rank-and-file Republicans to support it either. Rep. Tim Huelskamp, among the more vocal Freedom Caucus members, also predicted that a majority of Republicans would vote against the $1.1 trillion appropriations package that he’s calling the “Boehner legacy bill.”In other words, Ryan will have to pass the omnibus with the same organic governing coalition of mostly Democrats and some Republicans that Boehner himself used to pass most necessary legislation. That’s a violation of the so-called Hastert rule in which a speaker has pledged to only call up legislation that has support of a majority of the majority party. Ryan assured conservatives that he would abide by this rule if they supported his bid. On his first big funding bill, Ryan will just … not follow the rule that he said he would follow.
This'll feed into the anti-establishment annoyance. Kick things off with overpromising and not keeping it isn't going to win fans... which is kinda a shame, because as one can see from the rest of the deal:
Republicans’ major “get” in the omnibus is a lift on the longtime ban of crude oil exports. That’s a big deal.
Lifting a real big 40-year ban is a fairly sizable thing. So Ryan did get a real compromise in exchange for passing the deal- as politics should work.
The Zadroga Act, a health care and compensation fund for 9/11 first responders and nearby workers, will be reauthorized until 2090, a hilarious year to settle on but one that effectively means permanent. Jon Stewart is an effective lobbyist.
It's still shocking to me that they tried to not-renew it, and I'm glad they got re-shamed into doing so. Still, not politically costly to agree.
Meanwhile, Republicans made all sorts of business tax breaks permanent without any new way to pay for them. This roughly $600 billion package of treats includes permanent extensions of the research-and-development tax credit and other depreciation credits. Democrats got extensions of certain tax credits from the 2009 stimulus. Both got to chip away at funding for the Affordable Care Act, by delaying implementation of the so-called Cadillac tax on high-cost health plans (this one was technically tacked onto the omnibus, not the tax package) and the medical device tax. This half of the deal will be a big, fat budget-buster, and it will pass with mostly Republican votes.
Another concession to the Republicans... kinda an odd one to go for.
TL😄R version:
The sides actually negotiated, none of the more over-the-top Republican promises that had been tossed around got implemented, and it required not following the Hastert rule to pass, but the Republicans did get an ok on oil exporting, and made some business tax breaks permanent on their side of the deal.