I've posted for a couple of weeks now that there's rarely, if ever, any real winners or real losers in Washington. Battles between both Houses of Congress and/or the White House rarely, if ever, produce a clear cut winner. While political perception mandates both a winner and a loser be declared, no true distinction can be made in a great majority of public battles. The lines between the victorious and the defeated are just too distorted for either side to assert victory or accept defeat.That being said,
I must admit . . . . Maybe not so much this time.
John Boehner has seemingly done what no one thought possible. He started with a hefty promise. “
We’re going to cut $100 Billion from the FY2011 Budget.” Hands raised. Who thought he’d get within $70 Billion of that total? Now $60 Billion? Now $50 Billion? $40 Billion? $30 Billion? I suspect hands stopped being raised right around the $60 Billion to $50 Billion mark. Me too. I figured he’d be very lucky to get even half of those spending cuts. The Democrats didn’t want to give up anything. As a matter of fact, Obama has asked for $40 Billion more in spending per his FY2011 Budget Proposal. Democrats actually wanted to spend more. No way were Boehner and the Republicans getting more than a $40 to $50 Billion Dollar reduction, IF THAT.
We were WRONG!!
Boehner has ended up getting what amounts to almost
$80 Billion in reduced spending. The real numbers may even reach higher than that once the total savings tabulation is completed. Can you believe that?? Me either. For all intents and purposes, it does appear that Boehner won the FY 2011 Budget Battle. And if the cuts themselves weren’t enough to claim a “small” victory, then also consider the policy riders included in this deal:
The
Planned Parenthood fight is not over. Oh no. Boehner pushed that over to the Senate side. As part of this deal, the Senate will take up the issue of Planned Parenthood and the issue “will be debated and voted on in the Senate.”
Remember
Harry Reid vowing to never let the Repeal of Obamacare, as a straight up or down vote (not amendment) see the floor of the U.S. Senate. He'll have to eat those words now. Part of this deal
requires the Senate to “debate and vote on the Repeal of Obamacare.” This deal also requires
studies into Obamacare. These studies will look at the law’s mandates, the effect of rising premiums due to Obamacare, the auditing of the Obamacare waivers, and several others not released when typing out this blog.
Also included were these small nuggets of Republican gold. The District of Columbia is now
blocked from using Federal Funds for use in abortions. IRS is
barred from hiring additional agents. Yearly
audits of last year’s Financial Services Reform Package is now required. DC gets to experiment with school
vouchers and the results to be studied and applied to a legislative bill to be submitted within the next one to two years.
Boehner did very well for his first BIG outing against Obama and Reid. He kept his Tea Party Freshman happy. He got something for the evangelical base. He got tons for the fiscally conservative base. He placated the enemies of Obamacare. He is being given the “real” credit for avoiding a government shutdown seeing as how it was his side that was most apt to initiate the shutdown.
I still contend there are no true winners or losers, but this past week Boehner sure looks like the winner. He sounds like the winner. He talks like the winner. He’s absolutely being
praised as the winner.
Boehner was heard jokingly saying as he walked off the stage Friday night,
“WINNING!!”
