FeedOff the Cuff: Kicking the Can Down the Road
October 16, 2013 in Federal Budget and Debt Limit and Obama Care
Sixteen days after a partial federal government shutdown and just hours before the expiring federal debt limit, Senate leaders announced a new legislative deal today to end the budget crisis in Washington, calling it “historic.” But, all it is is just another effort – far too common in Washington these days – to kick the can down the road and deal with ironing out substantive legislative differences another day.
*The new January 15, 2014 CR budget and February 7, 2014 federal debt limit deadlines only extend the current fiscal crisis a short distance without any significant substantive progress on the overall federal budget and tax disagreements. With only two months until the December 13, 2013 reporting deadline for the newly-created House and Senate budget conference committee, who knows if another crisis will develop in just a few short months – although one would hope that the lessons of an unnecessary government shutdown have been learned by those who caused it.
*The newly-created bipartisan budget conference committee is unnecessary and makes a mockery of the time-worn existing structure of the House and Senate, each with their own Appropriations and Finance Committees and subject matter jurisdiction committees over the functions of the federal government, including entitlement programs, and a well-settled conference committee structure to resolve differences between the House and Senate. Last March, both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees passed federal budgets for the 2013-14 budget year that commenced October 1st. Had the House Republican leaders not refused to appoint conferees to meet with the Senate conferees for over six months, these issues could have, and should have, been ironed out within the normal conference committee structure.
*With all of the pain inflicted on the American people, up to 800,000 furloughed federal employees, and the recipients of federal safety net programs, and with the negative impact of a shutdown and a looming default on the already uncertain U.S. economy, Speaker John Boehner and the strident, conservative, Tea Party House Republicans got little to show for their misguided actions other than a “save face” minor modification to the Affordable Care Act to strengthen the income verification provisions for health insurance applicants. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell proclaimed victory on an alleged guarantee that the lower sequester spending levels – already law – would remain in place for two years under the compromise. But, only time will tell whether this promise will hold up by the time the new conference committee completes its work and the full House and Senate vote on it, especially when many Congressional Democrats (angered by the Republicans’ sixteen day government shutdown) want to lift the straight-jacket sequester spending limits in favor of cost/benefit reviews of individual federal program spending levels.
Without a doubt, getting the federal government back to work and avoiding the deleterious ramifications of a default by the federal government is worth the passage of this deal. But, this crisis was created by a small segment of House Republican members and freshman U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and the country is back to where it started before October 1st, kicking the can down the road again – and worse off for it.
