This past Friday night Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) and President Barack Obama found a way to compromise on the remainder of the budget for 2011 and avert a government shutdown.
The 11th hour deal is being hailed as a victory by both in the Democratic Party and in the Republican Party, with President Obama calling it an historical deal that will create the largest government budget cuts in history, $78.5 billion.
Included in the deal were guarantees by Senator Reid that he would allow a vote in the Senate to deny funding to President Obama’s signature health care reforms, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka “Obamacare”, which was signed into Law on March 23, 2009.
Back in January when the Republicans took control of the House their very first Bill H.R. 1, was to repeal the health care reforms. The Bill past along Party lines as expected, but the Republicans knew that the Senate, which is controlled by the Democrats and Senator Reid, would never allow it to come to the floor for a vote.
That is until now.
Republicans in the Senate would need 60 votes to defund The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which is unlikely, but certainly possible in today’s political climate. Politicians of all stripes for the most part, put their careers and reelections in front of Party loyalty on votes and what’s best for the American people (not being cynical, just a realist).
With 33 of the 100 seats in the Senate being contested in the General Elections for 2012, Democrats are expected to have at least 23 seats up for election, including 2 independents who caucus with the Democrats, while Republicans are only expected to have 10 seats up for election. Additionally, special elections may be held to fill vacancies that occur during the 112th United States Congress.
If you recall, Senator Reid had to make special deals with a few Democratic holdouts on the health care reforms to reach the 60 votes he needed on Christmas eve 2009. The Republicans as you may recall all voted “No” on the reforms. The final vote was 60-39. Today there are 47 Republicans in the Senate.
The Republicans would need 13 Democrats to vote with them, and for their excuse, they can tell their fellow Democrats, if they do vote Yes, that President Obama would Veto the Bill anyway if it ever reached his desk, which is true. So 60 votes to defund the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is certainly plausible.
Both Senator Reid and Speaker Boehner released a joint statement before running off to tell their caucuses that each had won the better part of the deal. Here is their joint statement:
“We have agreed to an historic amount of cuts for the remainder of this fiscal year, as well as a short-term bridge that will give us time to avoid a shutdown while we get that agreement through both houses and to the President. We will cut $78.5 billion below the President’s 2011 budget proposal, and we have reached an agreement on the policy riders. In the meantime, we will pass a short-term resolution to keep the government running through Thursday. That short-term bridge will cut the first $2 billion of the total savings.”
Reid Announces Agreement on Historic Cuts
Weekly Address: President Obama on the Budget Compromise to Avoid a Government Shutdown