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Biden to lead budget negotiations

With a stopgap measure in place, Senate Democrats said Wednesday that they will forestall any spending debate on the floor in favor of what they hope will be immediate budget negotiations between themselves, Republicans and a White House team led by Vice President Joseph Biden.

Biden, White House chief-of-staff William Daley, and Budget Director Jack Lew would be the three principals of the administration team as announced by President Barack Obama in a statement issued immediately after passage of the two week extension.

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“We we cannot keep doing business this way. Living with the threat of a shutdown every few weeks is not responsible, and it puts our economic progress in jeopardy. That’s why I’m calling on Democratic and Republican leaders of Congress to begin meeting immediately with the Vice President, my Chief of Staff, and Budget Director so we can find common ground on a budget that makes sure we are living within our means” Obama said.

“This agreement should cut spending and reduce deficits without damaging economic growth or gutting investments in education, research and development that will create jobs and secure our future. This agreement should be bipartisan, it should be free of any party’s social or political agenda, and it should be reached without delay.”

The president’s announcement coincided with testimony before Congress Wednesday morning by top cabinet secretaries, who warned that the continuing budget impasse poses a “crisis” for the military and threatens to undermine civilian efforts in frontline states like Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The two-week extension— approved 91-9- will be quickly signed by Obama to avert any threat of a shutdown Friday. But the Pentagon is left frozen at spending levels $23 billion below its 2011 request, and the State Department and foreign aid programs face the threat of real cuts of close to $10 billion.

American leadership in the world is “an achievement not a birthright,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton bluntly told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “We saved money in the short term when we walked away from Afghanistan after the Cold War. But those savings came at an unspeakable cost, one we are still paying.”

Across the Capitol before the House Appropriations Committee, Defense Secretary Robert Gates sounded the same note, saying the Pentagon faces a real crisis unless there is some relief soon. He suggested that cash problems were severe enough that even production of high-demand drones for wars overseas could be impacted, and cuts in operations and training hours at home are a recipe of “how you hollow out a military.”

Going forward, a major question is whether Republicans will opt to carve out a separate bill for defense to address the problems raised by Gates. The secretary has been a loyal soldier thus far in not demanding separate treatment. But in December 1995, shortly before cutting off funding for the rest of the government, Republicans succeeded in doing just that in an effort to isolate then President Bill Clinton.

This time may be different in that Speaker John Boehner has his own interests in keeping defense in the fight.

The Ohio Republican is trying to steer a course that achieves spending cuts without repeating the 1995 shutdown. That means he must contain his rambunctious freshman class, and when the next shutdown deadline rolls around on Mar. 18, Boehner—like Obama—will have more leverage if the military still has a stake in the outcome.

American University men's basketball team shows off their skills.

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Eric D. Schwerin
Rosemont Seneca Partners, LLC
1010 Wisconsin Ave., NW
Suite 705
Washington, DC 20007
(202) 333-1880
eschwerin@rosemontseneca.com
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