House passes $60 billion in spending cutsMore a battering ram than a budget, a giant government-wide spending bill passed the House early Saturday morning, packing $60 billion in Republican spending cuts together with scores of legislative riders to impede President Barack Obama in carrying out his policies.
Final passage came on a 235-189 vote shortly before dawn, capping an all-night session and marathon week during which literally hundreds of amendments were debated.
The open process — and largely civil tone — represent a victory for Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). But by moving so far right to appease his large freshman class, Boehner picked up no Democratic votes and sacrificed what many saw as his best shot of scoring a quick win in the Senate at the expense of Obama.
Instead, Senate Democrats will be more united now and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) stronger after Saturday’s margins. And the real question becomes: can Reid, Boehner and Obama pick their way through the coming weeks without falling into a government shutdown?
Since Oct. 1, agencies have been funded under a series of continuing resolutions or CR’s, the latest of which is due to expire Mar. 4. Washington is already electric with speculation of a shutdown and today’s circumstances are more dangerous than the crisis in 1995 when Republicans had also just taken over the House.
Unlike 1995, the nation is at war, with U.S. troops in the field in Afghanistan and Iraq. This profoundly raises the symbolism of any shutdown even as the political distance between Obama and the new Republican-tea party majority is far greater than what existed between then President Bill Clinton and the so-called Republican Revolution in 1995.
So much of 1995 was dominated by the outsized personality of then-Speaker Newt Gingrich who fancied himself a modern Cromwell leading Parliament against the king. By comparison the bill now reflects a more genuine upheaval, springing from the Republican ranks and demanding far more dramatic spending cuts than anything attempted so early in 1995.
The $60 billion in reductions are concentrated in the last six months of this fiscal year and represent a 14 percent cut that will severely impact Obama’s agenda at home and abroad. Foreign aid and State Department operations would be cut as much as $10 billion from Obama’s latest request. Pell Grants for low income college students are reduced, and School Turnaround Grants cut by almost two-thirds.
The Environmental Protection Agency lost $2.7 billion from its current appropriations. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, charged with major new responsibilities under Wall Street reforms, would get a third of the funding Obama wants. And the new Republican majority would block not just federal regulators but Obama’s signature achievement thus far: healthcare reform.
Indeed, the final day of House floor debate Friday showed that a large faction in the Republican conference still wants $22 billion more in reductions than the bill provides.
“The American people are ahead of us. They are asking us to go one step forward…to be bold,” said Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.), one of 147 Republicans, including House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who supported the cuts. And the amendment only failed because of concerted opposition by top GOP leaders and the House Appropriations Committee.
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