Almost lost in all the media (and ShrinkRap) attention to the Republican debate, here's the really big news of the week: Congress passed, by wide margins, a bill that extends the debt ceiling to March 2017 -- which essentially takes it off the table as a political issue through the remainder of President Obama's second term in office. The budget aspects of the bill are equally important: increases in both domestic and military spending, paid for by cuts elsewhere rather than by tax increases.
It can truly be called a bipartisan bill. It was negotiated by congressional leaders and the White House. The vote in the House was 266 to 167, in the Senate 64 to 35. Even though Democrats contributed a majority of the votes, it would not have passed without Republican votes. In the House, 79 Republicans voted for it; in the Senate, it was 18.
This seems obviously part of Speaker John Boehner's strategy of "cleaning out the barn" before he departs into retirement. It could not have happened as long as he had to appease the Freedom Caucus (aka Tea Party) or else be ousted from his job. Boehner took matters into his own hands and resigned -- thus leaving him free to actually do his job and get necessary legislation passed. And thus he paves the way for Paul Ryan to come in and perhaps actually get control of the process . . . maybe. It remains to be seen.
Congress will still have to pass appropriation bills to fund the spending proposals, but that will be minor skirmishes compared to the threat of shutting down the government that the Freedom Caucus was willing to do. There will likely be fights over defunding Planned Parenthood and undoing Dodd-Frank bank regulations, for example. And presidential candidates Rand Paul and Ted Cruz may try to grandstand.
But the essential framework has been agreed on. The logjam seems to have been broken -- and the Freedom Caucus lost the ability to paralyze the government. This is the big news of the week.
Ralph
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