Congress Budget Committee Kicks Off, Has Low Hopes and Tall Orders
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[quote]The budget negotiating committee started work Wednesday morning and members say, if nothing else, they are going to at least attempt to come to some resolution that will avoid another fiscal crisis.
There aren’t high hopes that they will be successful.
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The group of 29 senators and representatives that comprise the budget conference committee are tasked with trying to prevent another round of fiscal crisis by hammering out a bipartisan agreement to fund government. While the parameters of the conference committee allow them to look at the long term and it could be used as a venue to hammer out long-term government spending, entitlement programs or the Tax Code, that is unlikely.
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But even aiming low, finding a spending number that Democrats and Republicans can agree upon is a tall order.
The Senate Democrats’ budget sets non-discretionary spending for the current fiscal year at $1.058 trillion. The annualized spending level in the continuing resolution that was passed to reopen government set spending at $986 billion. Republicans want to keep in place the overall sequester number, which if Congress doesn’t act would fall to $967 billion in January — a nearly $20 billion reduction in defense spending.
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“I am going into this budget conference ready to agree to some tough spending cuts that, unlike the sequester caps that disappear in 2022, would be permanently locked into law,” Murray said. “I know there are many Republicans who would be very interested in swapping some of the inefficient and damaging sequester cuts with structural changes to programs that would save many multiples of the cuts they replace over the coming decades.”
But that doesn’t mean Democrats are willing at this point to give up on new revenues or that Republicans are greeting them with open arms.
“But compromise runs both ways,” Murray said. “While we scour programs to find responsible savings, Republicans are also going to have to work with us to scour the bloated tax code — and close some wasteful tax loopholes and special interest subsidies. Because it is unfair — and unacceptable — to ask seniors and families to bear this burden alone.”
But there are signs that they could reach a compromise.
“Today, our tax code is full of carve-outs and kickbacks,” Ryan said. “We need to get rid of them — and those bipartisan talks are just the way to do it. So let’s do all we can to encourage that effort. And let’s focus our energy on the task at hand: a budget that cuts spending in a smarter way.”[/quote]
[url]http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/budget-group-kicks-off-has-tall-order-99093.html?hp=l4[/url]
[quote]Low Hopes[/quote]
That's way too optimistic
I have no hope.
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