Ryan: "We won some, we lost some."
by Tom Sullivan
While GOP presidential candidates screeched and pulled each other's hair in last night's debate over who would kill terrorists (and their families) longer, higher and deeper, the U.S. House managed to do something. It pulled together a budget deal:
Congressional negotiators have wrapped up a sprawling deal to keep the U.S. government operating through next September while setting new policies ranging from repealing a 40-year-old ban on oil exports to making many business tax breaks permanent, according to Republican lawmakers.
House Speaker Paul Ryan told GOP lawmakers late Tuesday, urging support for the legislation that delivers GOP wins but also includes many Democratic priorities. The deal would eliminate any possibility of government shutdowns until at least next October, according to lawmakers present.
[...]
"In negotiations like this you win some, you lose some," Ryan, R-Wis., said earlier in the day at an event hosted by Politico. "Democrats won some, they lost some. We won some, we lost some."
Ryan must be desperate to show his party can actually govern going into 2016.
The proposal delays the Cadillac tax for two years:
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) made an all-out push for including the Cadillac tax freeze, which is a top priority of labor unions, whose members would be hit especially hard by it.The deal also includes a five-year extension of tax breaks for wind and solar energy companies, something Democrats wanted.
It extends the 30 percent solar investment tax credit and a credit for solar-powered energy efficient properties for three years before phasing it down the final two.
The deal also extends the wind protection tax credit for two years before phasing it down over three years until the 2022 expiration date.
To seal the agreement, Republicans gave up on their bid to require people to provide a Social Security number to take a child tax credit, said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady of Texas. Democrats contended such a requirement would disproportionately affect immigrants.
A vote could come by the end of the week, with a stop-gap bill coming Wednesday to extend spending authority to December 22.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal summed up the debate with this ironic assessment of the GOP's presidential field:
Terror takes center stage at Republican presidential debate
https://t.co/FGyIbFF46G #GOPDebate pic.twitter.com/SFRyq0NnJQ
— Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) December 16, 2015