Welcome Back Government
Government open, debts paid. AP: "The Senate approved the legislation by an 81-18 vote; the House followed suit by a tally of 285-144, with 87 Republicans in favor and 144 against, breaking an informal rule in which a majority of the majority party is supposed to carry legislation. Democrats unanimously supported the bill, even though it locks in funding at levels required by across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration. The legislation would fund the government through Jan. 15 and permit it to borrow normally through Feb. 7, though Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew retains the capacity to employ accounting maneuvers to create wiggle room on the debt limit into mid-March or so."
A little bit of infrastructure in the bill. CNN: "$2.2 billion. That's the amount in additional cash authorized for a project that involved a dam and decades-old locks on a river that flows through Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's home state of Kentucky ... [A Dem] aide tells CNN that McConnell didn't push for the project to be included. And Sen. Lamar Alexander ... says he and another senator asked for the cash ... the new money ... will save the federal government many millions because contracts won't be canceled due to work stoppages. Still, the Senate Conservatives Fund calls the money a 'Kentucky Kickback.'"
Fractured GOP, United Dems
Will GOP learn its lesson, asks Politico: "Here are the three most prominent arguments already running through the GOP about who lost the shutdown ... Ted Cruz preened his way into a massacre ... Leadership wimped out and made everything worse ... Some men just want to watch the world burn ..."
"Boehner and his majority are in disarray" reports W. Post: "The outcome left the speaker without any clear plan for governing or for unifying a wickedly fractured GOP caucus that has repeatedly divided when it needed to unite ... the House GOP now faces is a series of contentious fiscal fights over the next four months along the same lines as the budget and debt-limit battles ... In the fiscal fights ahead, however, nobody can be sure whether the most conservative Republicans will be willing to join with their leaders or will stand on the sidelines with the collection of outside groups that advanced this particular strategy of shutting down the government..."
"The House Minority Is the New House Majority" says National Journal: "Obviously House Democrats can’t control the floor or bring up their bills. But during the past few major fiscal fights, a nearly united House Democratic Caucus has carried bills across the finish line, despite being outnumbered by Republicans ... While the Republican conference has been divided in these big battles, House Democrats have been remarkably unified—with some members gritting their teeth and casting votes for bills they don’t like. Many Democrats attribute that to a leadership that has a proven ability to deliver votes."
Next Budget Battle Looms
Both parties stake out similar ground. Bloomberg: "The last-minute agreement doesn’t eliminate the core conflict in Congress over fiscal policy ... Republicans say that in the next round of budget talks they will still refuse to raise taxes, while Democrats say they won’t cut entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare without more tax revenue."
Obama needs to "hold the line" on Social Security, Campaign for America's Future's Roger Hickey tells MSNBC.com: "...the real test, said Roger Hickey, the co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future, will be whether Obama can hold the line at that point, by ending the sequestration cuts that are dragging down the economy, and resisting cuts to Social Security and Medicare ... ''He’s got to remind people that when the Republicans say let’s do more sequestration, or more cuts or deficit reduction, what they’re really talking about is killing the recovery. And that when the Republicans say "a responsible approach to entitlements," what that means is cutting your SS benefits.'"
Rep. Ryan targeting Medicare, but other GOPers sound cautious. The Hill: "Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who will co-chair the budget conference, said Wednesday he plans to seek big changes to Medicare and Medicaid ... But it remains to be seen how hard of a bargain Republicans will try to drive with Democrats, who are likely to feel emboldened by their victory in the shutdown fight. Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said the budget conference could succeed if the GOP stops making 'unrealistic' demands. 'Don’t talk about cutting half the government, or defunding,' he said ... House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said Republicans need to make avoiding another shutdown their priority."
Little talk of grand bargain, reports National Journal: "Lawmakers are already busy defining down success for the budget conference committee. Almost no one is discussing the kind of 'grand bargain'—a mixture of revenues sought by Democrats and entitlement cutbacks sought by Republicans—that has proved elusive between President Obama and congressional Republicans for almost three years ... Instead, discussions for the conference committee are around simply keeping the government open through September 2014, the rest of the current fiscal year."
