2011 budget

My posts from yesterday morning (here and here) that asked which way House John Boehner (R-OH) was going to go on the CR may have been answered yesterday afternoon.

According to this story by Greg Sargent in The Washington Post yesterday, Boehner supposedly let the White House know that he couldn't or wouldn't support a deal on a continuing resolution that wasn't supported by 218 Republicans in the House.  There are 241 Republican members of the House in this Congress and at least 40 identify themselves as tea party supporters.  That makes the math simple: There's no way for Boehner to get the 218 votes he says he has to have from the GOP caucus if he loses all the tea party people. 

Here's the money quote from Greg's story:

Over at TPM, Brian Buetler has this gem of a story about how House Republicans are "Preparing to Reject Final White House Budget Offer." The post is worth reading in its entirety if for no other reason than to confirm that the House GOP isn't interested in doing anything if it can't be characterized as total capitulation by House Democrats, Senate Democrats, and the White House. As Ezra Klein says over at his blog at The Washington Post,

Reading this, you really wouldn’t know that Democrats, who control both the White House and the Senate, technically have a lot more power than Republicans, who only control the House. At the very least, no one appears to have told this to the Republicans.

Yesterday, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) ended his weekly news conference with:

QUESTION:
If the House and Senate can't reach agreement on -- on the CR by March 4th, would you be willing to entertain a short-term CR at current levels?

BOEHNER:
We're going to do everything that we can to cut spending. We're hopeful that the Senate will take up the House-passed bill that comes out of here today, tonight, tomorrow morning, whenever it is. But we hope that they will move it.

But our goal here is to cut spending. But I am not going to move any kind of short-term CR at current levels. When we -- when we say we're going to cut spending, read my lips. We're going to cut spending.

Thank you.
_________

I'm surprised he used "read my lips," because that's what President George H.W. Bush said to the Republican National Convention two years before cutting a deal to go back on his pledge not to raise taxes.

Melanie Starkey of Roll Call reported this morning that House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) said on Fox News Sunday that he would be willing to consider a short-term extension of the continuing resolution that expires on March 4 "while we work out a compromise."

The administration's announcement last evening that it was planning some type of freeze on nondefense domestic spending as part of its fiscal 2011 budget set off exactly the type of firestorm you would expect when a president proposes to limit or cut spending.

CG&G was, in fact, a perfect microcosm for the debate that is already underway.  Bruce wonders whether this is a replay of 1937, with fiscal restrictions being introduced too early in light of the slow growing economy.  Pete at the same time says that the president's plans are too small and won't have much of an impact on the deficit.

And those are just CG&G bloggers. Economic blogs everywhere were quick to jump on the announcement with much the same points.  I've seen little from either the right or the left that even comes close to applauding the proposal.