House Republicans get behind budget agreement
Source: Associated Press
House Republicans get behind budget agreement
AP foreign, Thursday December 12 2013
ANDREW TAYLOR
Associated Press= WASHINGTON (AP) House Republicans are rallying behind a modest budget pact that promises to bring a temporary halt to budget brinkmanship in Washington and ease automatic budget cuts that would otherwise slam the Pentagon and domestic agencies for a second straight year.
At the same time, President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats are praising the measure negotiated with House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who morphed from an uncompromising small-government stalwart into a divided-Washington dealmaker in order to claim a partial victory on the budget.
The deal Ryan negotiated with Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., would preserve the bulk of tough agency spending cuts the GOP won in a 2011 showdown with Obama, while greatly reducing the chances of a rerun of the politically debilitating partial government shutdown that the GOP stumbled into in October.
The measure, which was set for a vote Thursday, seemed sure to pass despite unhappiness on the part of House Democrats cut out of the talks who were also upset that it didn't contain a provision to renew jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed.
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