In the News

 

 

 

By Jim Myers 

 

 

Washington — U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan won a lopsided victory Thursday for a two-year budget agreement as a huge majority in the House stepped away from congressional dysfunction long enough to embrace a path back to regular order without a continued threat of government shutdowns.

 

With a vote of 332-94, the proposal now moves to the Senate, which is expected to act on it in the coming days.

 

"We have been at each other's throats for a long time," Ryan said during floor debate, recalling his own role as his party's candidate for vice president and the effort to defeat President Barack Obama.

 

He then appeared to issue a challenge to fellow Republicans who oppose the package by saying elections have consequences.

 

"To really do what we think needs to be done, we are going to have to win some elections. In the meantime, let's try and make this divided government work," he said.

 

Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, hammered out the budget deal after weeks of negotiations with Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who heads the committee on that side of the Capitol.

 

Repeatedly describing the agreement as only a first step, the Janesville Republican ticked off a list of reasons members of Congress should support it, ranging from reclaiming power of the purse under the U.S. Constitution to reducing the deficit before the current schedule under the increasingly unpopular spending cuts known as sequestration.

 

Ryan also reminded them that without a budget agreement, Congress faces a threat of another government shutdown in mid-January, when the current funding law expires, and again on Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year.

 

One by one, top leaders from both parties came to the floor to urge their rank-and-file members to vote for the package.

 

"It's progress," House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said. If members are for reducing the deficit, reforming entitlements and avoiding tax increases, he said, they should vote for the agreement.

 

"These are the things I came here to do," he said.

 

 

 

Wisconsin's House delegation voted 7-1 in favor of the deal, with Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan casting the lone no vote.

 

Pocan explained in a written statement that sequestration relief in the bill did not go far enough. "Unfortunately, sequestration will continue to do needless harm to our families, our students and our economy in the coming year and for years to come," he said.

 

Pocan said the proposal also abandons more than a million Americans who desperately need jobless benefits. The measure did not extend those benefits as many Democrats had wanted.

 

"Furthermore, the legislation is paid for on the backs of the middle class and military families, while not touching the wealthiest among us and allowing corporations to continue to benefit from tax loopholes," he said.

 

In addition to Ryan, Republicans Jim Sensenbrenner, Tom Petri, Sean Duffy and Reid Ribble voted in favor of the measure, as did Democrats Ron Kind and Gwen Moore.

 

Petri described the budget as a step in the right direction. "While it leaves many issues unresolved, it is a strong starting point for further deficit reduction and government reforms," he said in a statement.

 

Sensenbrenner said in a statement that while the agreement is not perfect, both sides made sacrifices. He said he wished the bill went further to address the nation's debt but added it includes deficit reduction and prevents another government shutdown for two years.

 

In her statement, Moore said the budget agreement marked a small but positive step toward breaking the pattern of going from one crisis to the next.

 

Moore also said the deal between Ryan and Murray represents true compromise. "Neither party received all of what was asked," she said.

 

 

 

Earlier, with bipartisan support in hand, Boehner declared open warfare on the outside conservative groups that tried to scuttle the budget deal.

 

For the second day in a row, he accused groups such as Club for Growth, Heritage Action and Americans for Prosperity of reflexively opposing a reasonable plan in an effort to raise their own profiles and improve their fundraising.

 

He said the groups had devised the strategy of linking further government funding to the repeal of Obama's health care law, then pressing House Republicans to go along, even though they knew it would shut down the government and ultimately fail.

 

"Are you kidding me?" he shouted. "There comes a point where some people step over the line. When you criticize something and you have no idea what you're criticizing, it undermines your credibility."

 

Yet when the Senate takes up the bill, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate Republican leader, is likely to vote against it, along with virtually all of the Republican senators who are contending with tea party challenges next year or are wooing conservatives for a potential presidential bid.

 

 

 

Indeed, conservative activists said they would not surrender. The budget deal "exposes the true colors of several in the GOP establishment when it comes to protecting conservative principles," said Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots.

 

As it wrapped up its business for the year, the House left unfinished a major piece of domestic policy, the farm bill, making it likely that the law would lapse at the end of the year.

 

The farm bill has been the subject of disagreements between Republicans and Democrats over funding for food stamps and expanding crop insurance for farmers. All the House could pass Thursday was a one-month extension, which Senate Democrats oppose because they want an entire new bill.