Republicans Plot Budget Strategy, Deep Division Continues
Speaker Paul Ryan gathered House Republicans on Friday to plot their strategy for their fiscal year 2017 budget resolution, pleading with the hardliners in his party to stick to the bipartisan budget spending limits agreed to last year. Of course, no one is surprised that the extreme Members of his conference aren’t having it. From CQ:
“The House Republicans who gathered behind closed doors Friday to plot strategy on a fiscal 2017 budget didn't look particularly upbeat, much less united, when they emerged from a basement conference room in the Capitol.”
“Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., is pushing for a budget resolution that sticks to the bipartisan spending limits put in place last year. Such a strategy, he has argued, offers the best chance of getting regular spending bills passed on time and proving to an angry electorate that the Republican-controlled Congress can govern.”
“But conservatives in his fractious party, particularly those in the House Freedom Caucus, are pushing to roll back spending limits in an effort to show the GOP's base that Republicans can exert fiscal discipline. ‘We have to write a budget that reflects the fact that the deficit just went up $105 billion and the debt just hit $19 trillion,’ Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a Freedom Caucus leader, told your Budget Tracker. ‘That would mean spending less money,’ he said, while declining to say how much. ‘We're looking at all that.’”
“Taking the opposite view was House Armed Services Chairman Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, who wants to stick to the current spending levels, mostly to ensure extra money for the military. ‘I want to keep the agreement and not allow that to be eroded away,’ he told your Tracker, referring to the bipartisan accord last fall (PL 114-74) that provided fiscal relief from a deficit-cutting law (PL 112-25) known as sequestration. When asked if there was any consensus among Republicans at the meeting on a budget strategy, Thornberry said, ‘We're a long way from that.’”
We can’t decide what’s more troubling – the fact that House Republicans can’t seem to unite around a budget deal that they already agreed to or the fact that they won’t take responsibility for the deficit they voted to explode last year. Speaker Ryan and Members of the GOP conference voted for the budget agreement – and they should honor it. And once again, we’d like to remind Rep. Jordan and his fellow Members of the Freedom Caucus that it was their own votes for unpaid-for tax cuts that caused the deficit to explode this year. Using their own irresponsibility as an excuse for massive spending cuts is the height of hypocrisy.