The White House and Congressional leaders appear to have a deal on the budget and raising the debt limit into 2017:
Just before midnight on Monday, congressional lawmakers and the White House tentatively agreed on a major budget deal that would end such standoffs in the Obama presidency and solve a potentially catastrophic debt default coming within days. [snip]
Under the arrangement detailed by congressional aides, the debt limit, predicted to be hit on Nov. 3, would be extended into March 2017 -- well into the next president's term.
Additionally, over the next two years, government spending would rise $80 billion above the caps that sequestration currently allows. That money would be doled out evenly between defense and non-defense accounts, with $50 billion budgeted for the first year and $30 billion for the second.
On top of that, the bill would include $32 billion for the overseas contingency fund -- a veritable piggybank for administrations to cover the costs of wars -- split over the next two years. That would bring the deal's total spending increase to $112 billion over two years. [snip]
... The deal would extend the sequester's cuts to mandatory spending through 2025, which mostly involves a 2 percent cut in reimbursements to Medicare doctors. That reduction was scheduled to expire in 2021 under the 2011 Budget Control Act, which put sequestration into place. It was extended to 2023 under Murray-Ryan deal.
The new agreement also would prevent a 20 percent cut in benefits next year to the 11 million Americans enrolled in the Social Security Disability Insurance program. The cut would be avoided by diverting some of the incoming payroll tax money from Social Security's much bigger retirement insurance program for six years, something Republicans previously said they wouldn't do without cuts to benefits.If the deal passes, it would accomplish (at least on the fiscal side) what outgoing Weeper of the House John "Mr. Tangerine Man" Boehner promised as his "cleaning out the barn" before his retirement at the end of this month, removing some contentious issues from Weeper- to- be Paul "Lyin'" Ryan's to- do list. It would also mean Congress wouldn't be sabotaging the economy, at least for the balance of the Obama Administration.
The bill may be brought to the House floor for a quick vote in the next 24 hours. As a "tell" for who got the best of the negotiations, look for the percentage of Republicans voting against it versus the percentage of Democrats voting for it.
UPDATE: At least the head of Social Security Works thinks "the hostage has been released" as far as Social Security and Medicare are concerned -- good news for getting Democratic support.
