Three weeks to deal

Liberals and conservatives in Congress have very different views on the
budget, but they agree on at least one thing: no more stopgap bills.

Using spending cuts outlined in President Obama’s budget request for fiscal 2012, Congress has been cutting $2 billion a week in fiscal 2011 spending with short-term continuing resolutions (CRs).

{mosads}The CR Obama signed this month will expire after Friday. The resolution the House passed on Tuesday, and which will probably be enacted in the next couple of days, will expire on April 8.

That gives the White House and Congress more than three weeks to iron out a deal. The parties are roughly $50 billion apart, but settling on a number is unlikely to be the sticking point in negotiations.

Sixty-seven amendments were passed or accepted as part of the House GOP’s measure that cut spending for the rest of the fiscal year by $61 billion (when compared to fiscal 2010 levels).

Some of the amendments are not controversial. But many were and still are.

Defunding the implementation of healthcare reform has received the most attention. But that is unlikely to be a stumbling block in bipartisan talks, as Republicans privately acknowledge that they know the White House will not bend on that issue.

Other measures that would tie the hands of the Environmental Protection Agency will likewise be deemed deal-breakers for the Obama administration.

But the White House will need to bend somewhere.

There is intense pressure from the right to go to the mat on Rep. Mike Pence’s (R-Ind.) amendment that would ban federal funding for Planned Parenthood. Liberals have decried Pence’s measure, and GOP centrists who support abortion rights would rather not deal with it.

In the wake of a video controversy focusing on Planned Parenthood, Obama recently said the group has done some very good work, and indicated that the fight is a distraction from boosting the economy and creating jobs.

Other House amendments that must be tackled by party leaders include a measure by Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) that would ban foreign aid to Saudi Arabia; Rep. Greg Walden’s (R-Ore.) blockage of funding for the Federal

Communications Commission’s net-neutrality rules; and language sponsored by Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) that would restrict funds being used for presidential election campaigns or political party conventions.

None of these amendments can be taken seriously as measures that return the nation to fiscal stability, except in the same sense that the necessary first step to cleaning a garbage-strewn street is picking up the first piece of trash.

But even though these amendments involve marginal sums relative to the size of the federal budget, they are none the worse for that. And each has the power to reveal either party as more interested in a pet issue than in a serious fiscal fix.

The calculus of the next three weeks means neither side will win everything. Some of these amendments will be in the spending bill Obama signs. It will be fascinating to watch and see how many are sacrificed — and which ones.