The Spending Battle Rages On

Once again Congress has extended negotiations on a new spending bill, on Tuesday agreeing to another stopgap spending bill that will last until April 8th and cut an additional $6 Billion from the budget. These $6 Billion were again taken largely from suggestions that Obama outlined in his budget and were composed mostly of cutting unspent funds for pet projects for lawmakers on the hill. Now that the House has run out of budget issues in which both parties agree cuts were needed, the debate will start to get dicey.

The first $12 Billion in cuts were easy, they required little debate and were just kicking the can down the road for the real battle. Expect the next three weeks to look a lot like the last few days of the NFL labor negotiations, with both sides arguing their case to the public while making no real progress. It’s possible the House will be able to muster up one more stopgap funding measure making cuts to some programs that the White House can stomach, but that will be the best they can do. My prediction is that we will be seeing a government shut down before the month of April comes to a close.

What Each Side Needs to Do

Thanks to the heated political atmosphere and the media’s love to over exaggerate and speak in absolutes, it may be impossible for both Speaker Boehner and President Obama to come out of this battle without seeing their public opinion ratings take a hit. Speaker Boehner is largely bound by the Conservative voice in the house calling for massive spending cuts that any attempt at compromise before a shutdown will be seen as capitulation and a weakness that could further divide the Republican Party. On the other side President Obama has drawn his line in the sand well below the amount of cuts the Republicans are calling for, and cannot go back on his commitments to veto any massive decrease in spending without angering the liberal left.

Even though I am a fiscal conservative, and truly believe our spiraling debt is going to be a serious problem down the road, I believe now is the time for compromise. The ideal situation for the nation is for both leaders to take a few lumps from their party base, and come to a compromise that inevitably will be palatable for the majority of both parties. Ideally the cuts are significant, and the spending bill comes with a serious commitment to tackle entitlement spending issues in the coming year. After all, elections are still over a year away, and for Boehner that means there is still plenty of time to cut find ways to cut back the President’s healthcare overhaul, reign in spending, and work with Republicans to create a reasonable solution to the growing budget for entitlements. For Obama, approving any budget measure below the $61 Billion in cuts the Republicans are calling for can be spun as a necessary measure to prevent a devastating government shutdown. While the media will mostly likely portray this move as weakness and a betrayal of his party, most voters will appreciate Obama’s realistic approach to the issue, and his reluctance to shut down the government just for political gain.

The Plea for Fiscal Austerity

Now I’m sure this article will bring heat down on me from both sides of the spectrum, as compromise does not seem to be the most popular route for either side on this matter. But consider this a plea from the younger generation of Americans who are seriously concerned about the path our government is going on. Despite what many claim, everybody involved in this matter all want the same thing, for the United States to be successful and the top nation in the world for as long as possible. It’s been said one million times before, but I’ll say it again; it’s time for the political pandering and needless arguments to stop. I urge lawmakers to get together and come up with a serious, legitimate plan for reducing our Federal spending over the coming years. Let’s be honest, even the $61 Billion the Republicans are proposing to cut is just the tip of the iceberg. While I applaud them for taking a step in the right direction, they know as well as I do that there will need to be many more cuts down the road, and that no government entity can be taken off the table. But for now, I urge both sides to create an atmosphere of compromise and come up with an agreement that everybody can stomach. It may not solve our issues now, but it certainly will make negotiations on the issue a lot easier in the coming years, when there are much bigger costs at stake.