海角大神

Why is Paul Ryan miffed about new budget deal?

The budget deal was crafted by outgoing Speaker John Boehner behind closed doors. Hard-line Republicans don't like that, and neither does Ryan.

|
Carolyn Kaster/AP/File
Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., right, walks from a meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Oct. 26, 2015. The bipartisan deal announced by House Speaker John Boehner seems to be great for many in Congress, but Ryan has some beef with the proposed budget.

The bipartisan deal announced by House Speaker John Boehner appears to be a win-win-win 鈥 for the White House, Republicans, and Democrats.

The two-year pact not only averts a federal debt default next week, but also sidesteps a potential government shutdown in December.

It beefs up both defense and nondefense spending. It heads off deep cuts in Social Security disability payments. And it prevents a significant increase in certain Medicare payments (Part B) for seniors.

So then why is the presumed next speaker, Republican Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, expressing such anger about it? Also, why are political observers rather downcast as well?

Much of it has to do with the way the deal was put together 鈥 highly dependent on one man who is leaving the scene and highly reliant on a secretive negotiating process involving only a few key people and their staffs. Such a closed-door process is how Congress has gotten things done for decades. But the hard-line House Freedom Caucus has been demanding a different way 鈥 a bottom-up approach, which could actually complicate dealmaking for a future Speaker Ryan.

Political observers have not trumpeted the deal because they see it as a one-off solution, created by Speaker Boehner鈥檚 pending exit. That coming departure has freed him up to negotiate directly with Democrats in Congress and with President Obama, unconcerned about another eruption on his right flank from the Freedom Caucus.

鈥淭his is not a good sign for the budget process. The only way we got this done is for a speaker to resign. Is that what it's going to take to get a deal the next time?鈥 asks Stan Collender, a federal budget expert in Washington.

Ryan sides with his hard-liners

As for Representative Ryan, he took issue, at least publicly, with the process surrounding the deal. Legislation for it was filed very late on Monday night, and it will hit the House floor for approval on Wednesday. It鈥檚 expected to pass with heavy support from Democrats. Then it will head to the Senate, whose Republican and Democratic leaders were also in on the private negotiations.

鈥淚 think the process stinks,鈥 Ryan said Tuesday morning.

鈥淭his is not the way to do the people's business,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e are up against a deadline 鈥 that's unfortunate.... As a conference, we should've been meeting months ago to discuss these things to have a unified strategy going forward.鈥

That should be music to the Freedom Caucus鈥檚 ears, and Ryan would need that group鈥檚 support as speaker.

The nearly 40 Freedom Caucus members, many of whom came to Congress on the tea party wave of 2010 or after, want to devolve power from the speaker鈥檚 office. Their preferred approach would empower committees, and themselves, to a much greater extent.

鈥淧utting together a very complex deal and giving members less than 48 hours to read it, study it, and vote on it with virtually no input 鈥 it鈥檚 about as bad as the process gets around here,鈥 said Rep. John Fleming (R) of Louisiana, a member of the Freedom Caucus.

Ryan was apparently not involved in the talks. That absolves him from the deal 鈥 which has elements of one he negotiated with Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington to resolve a budget crisis just two years ago.

鈥淗e wasn鈥檛 down there. He wasn鈥檛 even invited. He鈥檚 been trying to figure out if he鈥檚 going to be speaker this week, not if he鈥檚 cutting a debt ceiling deal,鈥 said Freedom Caucus founder Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R) of South Carolina, sticking up for Ryan. 鈥淲e believe him鈥 when he says he鈥檚 frustrated by the process.

Representative Mulvaney acknowledges that deals like this, in the end, have to be negotiated by the key players on both sides. It鈥檚 not possible for all 247 Republican members to be negotiators. The problem for him was that the chief negotiator was someone who is on his way out 鈥 someone whom the right wing had pushed out the door.

Does the deal help Ryan?

Mulvaney and other Freedom Caucus members have big problems with the deal itself, not just how it was put together. They don鈥檛 like that it busts budget caps of the 2011 Budget Control Act by $80 billion, even as it raises the current $1.8 trillion debt ceiling.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 two strikes, and there are plenty of other third strikes in there,鈥 said Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R) of Kansas, another Freedom Caucus member. One of them is a change that he says would 鈥渄estroy鈥 crop insurance, of vital interest to his state.

The budget increases are being offset by cuts elsewhere, including small-scale reforms to Social Security and Medicare 鈥 long sought by Republicans. But Representative Huelskamp is skeptical about whether those reforms will ever pay off, while Mulvaney says Boehner is 鈥渕erely moving the deck chairs.鈥

Some observers say that even by 鈥渃leaning out the barn鈥 for his successor, Boehner hasn鈥檛 really made it easier on Ryan. The Freedom Caucus is even angrier at how this deal was handled, and it will insist that Ryan not follow such secret, last-minute negotiating.

鈥淭he Freedom Caucus will not make it any easier for Paul Ryan to make similar concessions once he is in power,鈥 writes Julian Zelizer, a historian at Princeton University, in an e-mail to the Monitor. "Without the crisis atmosphere that results from budgetary differences, there will in many ways be more room for the parties to fight over issues."

Others disagree.

鈥淧aul is going to be in better shape than he would have been because a lot of the overly contentious issues will be off the table,鈥 says Rep. Peter King (R) of New York, a moderate, in an interview. 鈥淗e鈥檒l be able to actually start working toward governing as opposed to going from crisis to crisis.鈥

Staff writer Gail Russell Chaddock contributed to this report.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
海角大神 was founded in 1908 to lift the standard of journalism and uplift humanity. We aim to 鈥渟peak the truth in love.鈥 Our goal is not to tell you what to think, but to give you the essential knowledge and understanding to come to your own intelligent conclusions. Join us in this mission by subscribing.
QR Code to Why is Paul Ryan miffed about new budget deal?
Read this article in
/USA/Politics/2015/1027/Why-is-Paul-Ryan-miffed-about-new-budget-deal
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
/subscribe