Huge, huge props to Speaker Ryan for announcing the budget deal in the middle of the debate. I'm honestly impressed by the timing.
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) December 16, 2015
Quick note: THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU Alain the Site Fixer, with the SSL thingie turned off I once again have access to all my beloved FYWP click-crutches. (Which means that I could put a page break on my last post, so now all the rest of you can thank Alain as well.)
Meanwhile, per the Washington Post, company paper for the town whose monopoly industry is politics:
Congressional leaders on Tuesday night reached agreement on a year-end spending and tax deal that would prevent a government shutdown and extend a series of tax breaks that benefit businesses and individuals, according to lawmakers.
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) walked members of the House GOP conference through the deal at a meeting Tuesday night.
“Paul Ryan made a compelling case to support it tonight,” Rep. Reid Ribble (R-Wis.) said after leaving the session. “He feels that it’s time to start fresh, that we increase our hand and we’ll have better negotiating position if we have a strong Republican vote this year.”…
The House and Senate are expected to pass the legislation by the end of the week. With government spending authority set to expire at the end of Wednesday, however, leaders plan to quickly move another stop-gap spending bill that would give Congress until Dec. 22 to clear the year-end spending bill, more time than is likely needed.
The sweeping agreement that came after weeks of bipartisan negotiations is the broadest tax and spending deal since the January 2013 “fiscal cliff” agreement, which prevented automatic spending cuts from taking effect and shielded middle-class workers from tax increases while allowing some increases on the wealthy.
Both parties will be able to claim policy victories while bemoaning what also made it in or was left out…
Ryan has committed to allowing members three days to review the agreement, setting up a potential Thursday vote in the House.
The tax discussions were closely linked with talks on the year-end appropriations bill as negotiators attempted to trade priorities across the two must-pass bills.
But House leaders are expected to have to rely on some procedural maneuvers to pass the package, by holding separate votes on the tax and spending parts of the deal. If both pass they would likely be rolled into one package for the Senate to consider later this week.
But House leaders are expected to have to rely on some procedural maneuvers to pass the package, by holding separate votes on the tax and spending parts of the deal. If both pass they would likely be rolled into one package for the Senate to consider later this week.
The tax break package would cost about $650 billion and extend around 50 credits for businesses and individuals while also delaying until 2017 a tax on medical device manufacturers. The approximately $1.1 trillion appropriations package would fund the government for the remainder of fiscal 2016 and contains a two-year delay of the Affordable Care Act’s so-called Cadillac Tax on expensive employer-sponsored health care plans as well as a delay of a tax on health insurance plan purchases…
Much more detail at the link, including the usual caveats about past performance not predicting future results, and chest-thumping from the usual malcontents in the Freedumb Carcass…
New Speaker Ryan promised to change things but leaders just posted 2000-page omnibus that will quickly be enacted. https://t.co/kUaUkvVRuA
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) December 16, 2015
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Apart from nursing hangovers from last night’s various “nostalgia-novelty” performances, what’s on the agenda for the day?
Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Elsewhere in the Political NewsPost + Comments (128)