It appears that the Republicans in the House are trying push their piecemeal budget process by funding individual Government departments instead of a ‘grand bargin’ the President wants….
All this also is a back room fight on social programs cuts that the GOP wants with no increase in tax revenue from rich Americans….
The White House is positioning itself for another spending battle with the House, but Republicans in the chamber are viewing the administration’s strongest threat to date as yet another bluff.
The White House on Monday issued a broad veto threat against a specific, pending House appropriations bill funding the Department of Homeland Security, declaring the president would reject any individual spending bill without a larger budget framework. It was not so much an attack on the smaller bill as it was a targeted shot across the bow of Republicans who want to force the president to negotiate more spending cuts associated with a debt limit increase.
Though the president has repeatedly said he is done linking the debt limit to budget cuts, the House GOP is banking on the president doing just that.
House Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., said Monday he believes the White House announcement is ultimately an empty threat. He also indicated that the potential for finding common ground with Obama was elusive at best.
“They refuse to come to the table to address the problem on the entitlements, which is eating up the budget,” Rogers said of the Obama administration. “Unless they come to the table to address that, they really don’t have any sway with me.”
The government is projected to hit its debt limit early this fall — roughly the same time that this fiscal year’s appropriations bills are set to expire. The current spending levels were set by 2011´s Budget Control Act, the legislative result of the last major fight on the debt limit when Republicans exacted an austerity policy from Democrats in exchange for raising the borrowing levels. Democrats are particularly miffed that the Department of Homeland Security funding bill appears to violate the previously established firewall between defense and non-defense appropriations cuts….
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