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Via Brian Beutler, David Rogers reports:
In a surprising bit of hardball, House Republicans confirmed that they had been actively considering a plan to tamper with the August budget agreement by cutting even more from 2012 spending in order to put pressure on Senate Democrats to come to terms faster on domestic bills for the coming fiscal year.
Instead of the agreed-upon appropriations target of $1.043 trillion, a stopgap continuing resolution or CR this week would be calibrated at a lower $1.035 trillion level. The idea – promoted by Speaker John Boehner — was to effectively withhold about $8 billion for the first two months of the fiscal year, with the money becoming available only as Senate Democrats come to terms with the House on the dozen annual spending bills that cover government operations.
Boehner's agenda?
First, pro-defense Republicans close to Boehner fear that the August deal was tilted too far against Pentagon spending—and Democrats will find it easier to extend the CR than bargain on the individual bills.
Second, beyond the dollars themselves, Republicans will want to use the appropriations bills to advance the party’s anti-regulatory agenda. Legislative riders impacting policy decisions by President Barack Obama—including his health-care reforms—are sure to be in the offing, whereas the CR will be relatively clean of these provisions.
As Beutler points out, mucking around with the spending levels from the debt deal could set the stage for another budget standoff like we had in April, complete with a threat of government shutdown. But what strikes me here is that Boehner's motives are very different than they were back then. In April, he couldn't talk about anything but reducing spending. Now, he's trying to help his congressional allies deliver military pork to their districts and special regulatory waivers to their contributors.
Unless I'm missing something, that doesn't have anything to do with a tea party demand. It's just Republican politics-as-usual. Boehner will probably aim to confuse the debate, but there's really no chance he wants to shut down the government. But it does suggest that when it comes to jobs legislation, Democrats might actually have the ability to give Boehner something that he wants.
And it's also a reminder that despite all the hot air surrounding the debt limit deal, the agreement, such as it is, is only binding for as long as Congress and the White House want it to be, regardless of which party controls which chamber, or what president is sitting in the Oval Office. It's not a deal that was designed to last.