Posted on 12/04/2013 5:00:25 PM PST by 11th_VA
WASHINGTON — Congressional budget negotiators are zeroing in on a modest deal to keep the federal government operating while easing the grip of the mandatory automatic spending cuts known as sequestration.
With the clock ticking toward a Dec. 13 deadline to report to Congress, the bipartisan conference committee led by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is weighing a plan that would set spending levels for fiscal 2014 and 2015.
The goal is to avoid a train wreck like the one that caused the 16-day partial government shutdown in October. The shutdown ended when lawmakers agreed to a stopgap measure to fund the government for three months. That funding measure expires Jan. 15, the same day that $109.3 billion in sequestration cuts are due to kick in.
Those close to the talks caution that nothing is final yet – and everything could blow apart at any moment.
But so far, there’s cautious optimism. Negotiators are considering a 2014 budget for discretionary items – those under Congress’ control – that would spend at an annual rate of about $1 trillion, more than the $967 billion that conservative Republicans want but less than the $1.058 trillion Senate Democrats endorsed.
Veteran budget expert Steve Bell, a former chief of staff for the Senate Budget Committee, expects the bicameral talks to fail.
“Anything can happen,” said Bell, a senior director at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a research organization. A key question, he said, is whether incumbents in the House of Representatives think it’s better politically if they reach a deal or continue to clash over spending.
(Excerpt) Read more at kansascity.com ...
I cant wait to find out how much they steal from me this time around.
Handing the psycho the gun and ammo. Nice work, Republicans.
The budget leaders are crafting a plan to soften the blow of sequestration’s across-the-board spending cuts by finding savings in other areas of the budget and by generating revenue through increasing some user fees. The federal government attaches these small fees on things that range from airline tickets to national parks usage. That would allow the two parties to claim that their sacred cows were untouched: Democrats who balk at cuts to entitlement programs such as Social Security and Republicans who won’t accept tax increases.
Other sources say they'll raise fees for parks, sell off spectrum, and tweek Gov't Employee pensions. The savings would be split roughly in thirds. One third to pay off deficit, on third to Defense (20 billion above sequestration levels), and another third for Gov't Departments.
No tax increases and no entitlement cuts.
>> generating revenue through increasing some user fees
Raise taxes, in other words.
Go to hell, republicrats.
I’ll put you down as undecided ...
Mmmmm fees are tax increases.
I’ll take it. No shutdown; that will distract from the DebacleCare.
Exactly Laz - let the focus be Obamacare. A light still shines at FR ...
Grr, nice of the Dems and RINOs to only steal another $33 billion dollars.
You gotta ask will anything make them quit increasing their spending?
Hell: Just do away with the Sequester and spend, spend, spend. Just print more money. That’s the answer.
Everyone is forced to pay taxes. No one is forced to go to a National Park.
Nor are you forced to use a telephone or fly in an airplane.
But when you do, you pay TAXES (disguised as “fees”).
It’s lame beyond belief for the republicrats to claim they are not increasing taxes by calling them “fees”.
>> let the focus be Obamacare
Really? How?
And without the power of the budget, from where will their leverage come?
Or will they just channel Darryl Issa and engage in some toothless anti-Obamacare posturing?
That good enough for you?
Not for me.
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