The House of Representatives, which controls the nation’s purse strings, is dominated by Republicans. But they just agreed to a budget deal that includes $680 billion in new spending and special-interest tax cuts. The White House is claiming total victory. The deal gives the Obama administration what it wanted on Obamacare, immigration, and the environment. Planned Parenthood will keep its government funding. Pretty much the only thing Republicans got in return was an end to the ban on oil exports. Rush Limbaugh is calling for the Republican Party to be disbanded. See this for details.
UPDATE: The House adopted the budget.
UPDATE: So has the Senate, and the President has signed it. Look, this budget does some good things, like give more money to the military, including giving troops a raise. But it’s a return to the old deficit spending, reversing the budget reforms (for example, the agreement to balance new spending by making cuts elsewhere) of a few years ago.
From Dave Boyer, White House declares total victory over GOP in budget battle – Washington Times:
The White House declared victory Wednesday over congressional Republicans in the budget negotiations that concluded lateTuesday night, saying Democrats beat back the GOP across the board.
White House officials cited a long list of wins over majority Republicans on individual budget items ranging from funding for Planned Parenthood to an overall increase in spending beyond previous “sequestration” caps.
“We feel good about the outcome. We succeeded,” said White House press secretary Josh Earnest.
He listed half a dozen budget battles where the White House won, including fighting off efforts to delay Mr. Obama’s plan to accept Syrian refugees, defeating a GOP effort to cut funding to combat climate change, stopping an attempt to block the National Labor Relations Board from expanding employer liability, and halting an effort to repeal a tax on medical devices.
“We walked into these negotiations focused on making sure that Republicans would not succeed in advancing their ideological agenda,” Mr. Earnest said. “There were a variety of attempts… and we did succeed in fighting off those efforts.”
[Keep reading. . .]
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