WASHINGTON — John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) final act as Speaker of the House will be to cut a budget deal with President Barack Obama that conservatives loathe–so much so in fact that upon hearing the details, budget hawk Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said it made his “knees quiver.”
Boehner has been working quietly to pass an agreement with Obama to fund the government until 2017 and raise the nation’s debt limit. The move would remove a potential debt crisis from the table for the entire 2016 election cycle and allow Boehner to take the arrows from conservatives that might otherwise be aimed at incoming House Speaker Paul Ryan.
The U.S. Treasury has set Nov. 3 as the date before which Congress must approve a debt limit increase or risk a default. Money to fund the federal government’s operations is also set to run out Dec. 11. Ryan is expected to be installed as Speaker on Thursday, but Boehner’s agreement with Obama appears to already be a done deal, assuming he can cobble together enough Democrats and moderate Republicans for the bills to pass.
Congressional leadership briefed their members on the deal Monday night. An exasperated Jeff Sessions emerged from the senate meeting clearly frustrated with the process, and with Boehner’s involvement.
“What does Boehner got to do with it?” Sessions rhetorically asked reporters of the lame duck Speaker. “I’m worried about how fast it’s moving. I see no reason for that. Based on what I know now, it appears the president got whatever he wanted.”
The deal busts the spending caps put in place by the Budget Control Act of 2011, sending defense and domestic spending rocketing past sequestration levels by $80 billion over the next two years. A Medicare premium increase set to go into effect in January would be curtailed at the request of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Defense hawks are also among the advocates of the deal because it boosts the Pentagon’s budget at the expense of other programs and also sets aside an additional $16 billion for “war funds” that are exempt from budget caps.
The deal has already received support from leaders on both sides of the aisle, from Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), but conservatives are once again coalescing in opposition.
“We’re not just here to take commands,” said Michigan Congressman Justin Amash, a member of the staunchly conservative Freedom Caucus. “We’re really tired of the top-down, micromanagement where you have just a few people, or in this case just the speaker and his team, determining the outcome. This is a fair reason to vote against the bill.”
“Looking at the information that we’ve gathered so far, I’m not necessarily in a position where I think that’s in the best interest of our country going forward,” added Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC). “It’s just hard to justify that we’re not figuring out how to clamp down on spending.”
Asked about the tentative agreement as he walked out of the Capitol on Monday, Sen. Sessions summed it up by saying, “My knees quiver at the sound.”
.@SenatorSessions says @SpeakerBoehner’s final budget deal with @POTUS is so bad it made his ‘knees quiver’ https://t.co/YFWsAuw0jU
— Cliff Sims (@Cliff_Sims) October 27, 2015
Don’t miss out! Subscribe today to have Alabama’s leading headlines delivered to your inbox.