Shrewd budget moves

The budget maneuvering between Republicans and Democrats has been a chess game — but a fast one. 

In late February, when it was clear that a long-term deal to fund the government remained out of reach, many expected Republicans to pursue a short-term stopgap bill that would mirror the $61 billion bill they had just passed.

{mosads}But instead of simply prorating that measure, which attracted a presidential veto threat, they did something clever. 

The two-week bill called for $4 billion in cuts, using spending reductions outlined in President Obama’s fiscal 2012 budget request.

Democratic leaders, who had been calling for a short-term bill that flat-lined spending, were boxed in. Knowing they couldn’t block cuts requested by Obama, they passed the House bill without changing so much as a comma.

The second short-term bill mirrored the first, but dozens of impatient GOP lawmakers in the House expressed their frustration with the Band-Aid approach and the lack of riders attached to the $61 billion measure; 54 Republican lawmakers in the lower chamber defected, but the measure still easily cleared the House and was quickly approved in the Senate.

This week, Democrats crafted an equally clever countermove and have seen political momentum swing their way. Democrats said they would be willing to embrace $20 billion in cuts for the remainder of the fiscal year, which brings them close to the $35 billion House GOP leaders floated a couple months ago.

Tea Party lawmakers balked at that number, and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) subsequently upped the reductions to $61 billion.

With the $10 billion that has already been cut, the Democrats have endorsed cutting a total of $30 billion.

After being all over the map, Democrats have now shrewdly focused their message. They say they are meeting Republicans halfway, adding that their compromise plan is essentially the same number that GOP leaders endorsed in earlier discussions, before “extreme” lawmakers forced Boehner’s hand.

When Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) unveiled his $35 billion plan in early February, he called it “a significant step forward to cut government spending and help spur economic growth and job creation. The measure will bring non-security discretionary spending back to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels, as House Republicans called for in their Pledge to America.”

Now Republicans are feeling the heat because they are losing the message battle. Tellingly, many issued strongly worded press releases on Tuesday, a great deal of which noted that Senate Democrats have not passed their own spending bill.

But the April 8 shutdown deadline is marching steadily on Washington. Democrats have the initiative right now, and it’s Boehner who has a few difficult moves to play.