Some people thought I was being unfair when I referred to the budget deal as a kiss-your-sister agreement.
But as more information is revealed, it looks like the GOP got the short end of the stick – largely because they were afraid of a government shutdown (even though I explained Republicans actually did very well during and following the 1995 fight with Clinton).
National Review has retracted its kind words about the deal, writing that:
There’s realism and then there’s cynicism. This deal — oversold and dependent on classic Washington budget trickery — comes too close to the latter. John Boehner has repeatedly said he’s going to reject “business as usual,” but that’s what he’s offered his caucus. It’s one thing for Tea Party Republicans to vote for a cut that falls short of what they’d get if the controlled all of Washington; it’s another thing for them, after making so much of bringing transparency and honesty to the Beltway, to vote for a deal sold partly on false pretenses.
And Philip Klein, writing for the Washington Examiner, says:
…a new Congressional Budget Office report showing that the deal that purported to slash spending by $38.5 billion for the remainder of the year, really only reduces outlays by a fraction of that amount, and only cuts this year’s deficit by a mere $352 million. If the $38.5 billion was chump change in the context of $14 trillion debt, I wouldn’t even know what to call $352 million. Bread crumbs, maybe?
The moral of the story is that Republicans need to make a fundamental decision. Are they serious about protecting taxpayers and America, or are they in the business of blowing smoke while getting a cut of the corruption in Washington? I explained yesterday that GOPers in Washington are governed by noble and base impulses. The budget deal was an example where the devil on one shoulder had more influence than the angel on the other shoulder.
