Winner!

[yallerdawg]

Source: The Hill, by Peter Schroeder
Budget deal: Winners and losers

The notable winners:

President Obama/Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)/Harry Reid (D-Nev.)

Democrats went into budget negotiations with a specific goal in mind: lift the spending caps set by the sequester. And they got it. The final budget deal of Obama’s presidency pushed government funding above those spending caps, while removing the debt limit as a hurdle to clear for the rest of his time in office.

The final package avoided any major changes to entitlement programs, and garnered unanimous support among House Democrats.

Medicare/social security

Roughly one-third of Medicare enrollees dodged a 52-percent premium hike thanks to the budget deal, which includes a loan from the federal government paid by future premium hikes. And Social Security’s disability trust fund got a much-needed cash infusion as well. That fund would have gone dry next year and enrollees were facing steep cuts, but a slice of the payroll tax as part of the budget deal helps shore it up.

The notable losers:

Conservatives/House Freedom Caucus

Conservatives wanted Congress to stick to the sequester spending caps, and hated seeing budget deals hammered out in private by just a handful of policymakers. But at the end of the day, Congress ended up passing a bill that exceeded previously set spending caps that was negotiated by a handful of congressional leaders and the White House.

The budget deal went from being unveiled to passage in just a matter of days, and while plenty of Republicans ended up opposing it, the deal never faced any significant threat of derailment. The question for conservatives now is whether that budget deal was the last gasp of the Boehner Era, or a sign of more to come.

Outside conservative groups


It was a rough stretch for outside conservative groups that have frequently worked to flex muscle in the Capitol. Heritage Action and Club for Growth joined forces to blast the budget accord as it drifted away from spending caps — and put lawmakers on notice that they were watching the vote. But it ultimately was for naught.

To add insult to injury, just days before the budget passed, more than half of the House's Republicans joined with Democrats to move a bill reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank. Forcing that bank's charter to expire had been a major coup for the conservative movement, which has dismissed the government agency as corporate cronyism. But the leadership shakeup gave Ex-Im backers the chance to move on a rare discharge petition, circumventing leadership opposition and bringing the bill up for a floor vote. Ex-Im's fate is still up in the air in the Senate, but vehement conservative opposition to its renewal in the House gave way to a reauthorization vote that garnered 313 'yeas.'

Well played, President Obama!

[Fred Sanders]

1. The fact that the rare Discarge Petition was successfully used is part of the incredible

negotiation the WH accomplished with Boehner and the majority of Republicans not completely crazy.

And a warning that blocking sensible laws is not going to work now, or in the future.

The Freedom From Freedom Caucus, also known as the Tea Party, have been effectively neutered.

Bravo! Time to put an end to the temper tantrums from a handful of nihilists that were embarrassing the nation in front of the world.

They can have their tantrums, what difference does and did it make?

[yallerdawg]

3. Conservatives ineffectually argued against passage.

It was a complete rout in both Houses!

Ted Cruz cried and whined for around 90 minutes.

After the cloture vote (60) to move to final consideration of bill, each senator was allowed up to one hour to speak.

Rand Paul took his hour - at 2 AM - blathering meaninglessly (last gasp?) - and then the 99 other senators said "Eff you, let's vote!" and shortly after 3 AM it was done.

When will Republicans realize how incompetent and useless these senators are? All of their speeches are about their personal failure to have any impact on legislation!

Or their one claim to infamy - credit default and downgrade of USA rating, government shutdown which directly hurt Americans, and sequestration which hurts over and over!

No wonder Republicans who came to do their job reject the war on the American people!

[Fred Sanders]

5. I think the collective insanity of the two "front runners", the jaw-dropping spectacle of lies and

deception, denial, tossing out of journalists, PP, BGazhi, the soaring Clinton poll numbers.......etc., etc. the list goes on and on, finally broke the elephants back.

You can only go so far and so deep with The Religious Crazy before the Not Religious Crazy in the GOP, still the majority, stop coddling the Evangelical Wing.

Maybe the NRC's of the RNC hope to wrestle back control of their Party and the Presidential election agenda before it is too late.

[Iliyah]

2. K & R

[SleeplessinSoCal]

4. question . . .

Has the GOP calculated that the spending increase now will be used in their favor during the run up to the 2016 election?

I'm thrilled this succeeded. But I'm always looking for the downside.

[yallerdawg]

6. No, technically all increases were offset.

The conservatives can argue it doesn't shrink government, but their Republican leadership put this together and did it outside of Republican committees, so it's on Boehner who just waved bye-bye, and McConnell, who has to despise both Cruz and Paul!

The Republican leadership had to be worried the teabaggers were going to default on US debt and shutdown the government, with 2016 expected to be another Democratic voting swell for presidential ticket, and potentially lots of Republicans can be taken out.

President Obama figured out a way to get what Democrats wanted and give the Republicans some cover to avoid the consequences of extremism, and the pain we would have to endure for rightwing political opportunism.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

7. Thanks. I may sleep well tonight.