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Politico...
Joe Biden group looks
for budget deal
By David Rogers
6/13/11
With 2012 appropriations bills already moving through the House, White
House budget talks return Tuesday to where they began six months ago:
Republican demands for deep cuts from domestic spending and foreign aid.
Senate Democrats — and a good many House Republicans, privately — are
hoping for a breakthrough soon so Congress can avoid a repeat of
April’s high drama over a government shutdown. But even after
concessions by President Barack Obama, the two sides remain more than
$1.1 trillion apart over the next 10 years, and Senate Republicans have
yet to step forward to help broker a deal between the administration
and the House GOP.
In the interim, the half-dozen 2012 appropriations bills moving in the
House illustrate the pitfalls ahead. And for all the added urgency this
week, the simple arithmetic of the crisis hasn’t changed.
A $72.5 billion military construction and Veterans Affairs bill,
reflecting only modest cuts, is expected to pass easily Tuesday. But
fast on its heels is a $17.25 billion agriculture and rural development
measure, which has had to absorb a $2.67 billion reduction on top of
what was an almost $3.4 billion cut in April from 2010 funding.
The wheels started to come off at the Appropriations Committee level
two weeks ago, and with a single stroke, the bill risks a trade fight
with Brazil while pitting the cotton lobby against a nutrition program
for low-income mothers and their infants. And amid rising world food
prices, the bill’s manager, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) appears to be
having second thoughts as well about his proposed 26 percent, $487
million cut in overseas food aid.
The pattern will repeat this week with back-to-back committee markups
of a $530 billion Pentagon bill, which adds $17 billion on top of new
military spending approved in April and is juxtaposed against a $30.6
billion energy and water bill that must absorb a second round of cuts
in the same period.
The Republican managers drew a line for themselves, protecting core
science programs from major additional cuts. But renewable-energy
initiatives are severely affected, and measured in real dollars, the
bills represent a return to spending levels in former President George
W. Bush’s first term.
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