INKS: Parties must reach across aisle to resolve shutdown
Henry Ford once said, “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”
As Congress nears the deadline to pass a budget by midnight Friday, politicians on both sides of the aisle should keep that quote in mind.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives approved a “stop-gap budget” Thursday to fund the federal government for another week while talks continue for a long-term budget. Unlike previous weeks’ stop-gap bills, which each cut $2 billion, Thursday’s bill would have cut $12 billion and included several policy issue “riders,” prompting Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to declare the bill “dead on arrival” in the Senate. President Obama also threatened to veto the bill if it somehow passed the Senate.
President Obama also threatened to veto the bill if it somehow passed the Senate.
So what was the point of proposing a bill that the GOP knew was not going to pass?
The same question applies to the long-term budget proposals from both parties. Representative Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has introduced his budget plan, which would make huge cuts to spending, bringing federal spending back below 20 percent of the country’s gross domestic product by 2058.
It is simple economics that spending higher percentages of the country’s GDP will be disastrous, and while the Ryan Plan would ensure that spending is cut, it stands no chance of passing.
Republicans only control the House; Democrats are still in control of the Senate and the White House, and proposing a plan the Republicans know will go nowhere is a waste of time.
Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly even said that the Ryan Plan is, “something the Democrats will never go for, thus Mr. Ryan knows that, so he is being provocative.”
But the Democrats do not have a great plan either. In November, voters made it clear they want to see government spending decrease. This means the Democrats are going to have to give in to some of the spending cuts Republicans want.
The latest Republican proposal would cut $61 billion from the budget, whereas the Democrats’ plan would have only cut $33 billion. While the Democrats control the majority of Washington, they do not control all of it, and without a sensible compromise, a government shutdown will occur.
Both President Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner have acknowledged that such a shutdown would not only further harm the economy, but would end up costing taxpayers more money.
A short-term budget must be passed today so that lawmakers can continue to work on a permanent budget, but the GOP needs to realize that the policy changes and $12 billion in cuts are deal breakers.
The House Republicans need to focus on passing a stop-gap budget that cuts spending at levels the Democrats can agree with.
Once they have another week, they can continue to iron out the details of the long-term budget and come up with an amount to cut somewhere between $33 and $61 billion. The two parties have to realize a compromise is needed — otherwise everybody loses.
