Disir
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- Sep 30, 2011
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Speaker Paul D. Ryan was supposed to be the one person who could unite a fractured House Republican conference, but if the current budget battle is any indication, unity may not be an achievable goal.
The Wisconsin Republican led a GOP conference meeting Friday in which he laid out three options for how members can choose to set fiscal 2017 funding levels in the upcoming budget resolution. But only one of those options — sticking to the funding levels approved in last year’s budget deal — will give Congress a chance at passing appropriations bills through regular order, he said, according to a GOP source in the room.
Ryan’s presentation received applause but did not seem to change any minds. Members leaving the meeting reiterated the same views they’ve held for weeks: Conservatives want a budget written to the lower sequester levels; defense hawks want to retain or even raise the agreed-upon level for defense; and other members support adhering to the levels reached in the budget deal.
“I heard some new ideas but I didn’t hear any new sentiment,”said House Freedom Caucus member Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C.
If anything was clear from Friday’s “family discussion,” as Ryan has referred to the budget talks, it is that House leadership has changed, but the GOP membership has not. Here they are barely a month into the new legislative session already fighting over competing priorities over the budget. It’s the same infighting that led former Speaker John A. Boehner to take control and offer his own solutions.
Budget Divide Threatens to Kill Short-Lived GOP Unity - News
And that is the crux of it. Ryan appears to be leaving it open knowing in advance that they will have to come around and some of them can see it.
The Wisconsin Republican led a GOP conference meeting Friday in which he laid out three options for how members can choose to set fiscal 2017 funding levels in the upcoming budget resolution. But only one of those options — sticking to the funding levels approved in last year’s budget deal — will give Congress a chance at passing appropriations bills through regular order, he said, according to a GOP source in the room.
Ryan’s presentation received applause but did not seem to change any minds. Members leaving the meeting reiterated the same views they’ve held for weeks: Conservatives want a budget written to the lower sequester levels; defense hawks want to retain or even raise the agreed-upon level for defense; and other members support adhering to the levels reached in the budget deal.
“I heard some new ideas but I didn’t hear any new sentiment,”said House Freedom Caucus member Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C.
If anything was clear from Friday’s “family discussion,” as Ryan has referred to the budget talks, it is that House leadership has changed, but the GOP membership has not. Here they are barely a month into the new legislative session already fighting over competing priorities over the budget. It’s the same infighting that led former Speaker John A. Boehner to take control and offer his own solutions.
Budget Divide Threatens to Kill Short-Lived GOP Unity - News
And that is the crux of it. Ryan appears to be leaving it open knowing in advance that they will have to come around and some of them can see it.
