House Speaker Paul Ryan doesn't want to get into the kind of trouble his predecessor did, so he's pretty much staying out of the so far unproductive negotiations over a spending bill. The deadline is December 11, and Republicans are still insisting on dozens of poison pill policy riders that Democrats flatly reject.
Democrats Thursday continued to seethe at the GOP’s opening offer on outstanding policy and funding issues. They said Republicans’ Tuesday night wish list includes more than 30 “poison pills” that must be dropped if they want to attract Democratic support.
At play, according to senior appropriators, is a rider targeting the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers' so-called "Waters of the U.S." rule, as well as language related to refugees fleeing Syria and Iraq.
Also at issue are several provisions targeting financial and workplace regulations, including the Department of Labor's so-called fiduciary rule. Some media reports indicated Republicans took contentious immigration and Planned Parenthood riders off the table in order to focus their list of asks. There are also some outstanding funding issues that need to be resolved. [...]
As far as we know now, net neutrality is among those poison pills, and Planned Parenthood defunding is just as likely to come back as not.
There's also the possibility that lawmakers will want to load this thing up with other, unrelated legislation, some good and some bad. For example, "bills related to the U.S. visa waiver program, tax extenders, removal of the oil export ban and a renewal of health care programs for the first responders to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack," are all rumored to be possible additions.
For a glimpse into how bad this could be, let's look at just the tax extenders, as detailed by David Dayen. These are dozens of extensions of tax breaks to "businesses, commuters, homeowners, Puerto Rican rum manufacturers, thoroughbred horse owners, etc." Tax extenders are a freebie in this House. They operate under a rule that says any new spending has to be "offset"—replacement cuts made—but new tax cuts don't have to be replaced with other revenue. Those measures include making six corporate tax breaks permanent, at a cost of $667 billion. Overall, "the final bill could cost as much as $889 billion over 10 years, with over 70 percent of that going to business tax breaks."
In those circumstances, you can sure see why $500 million for women's health care is just too much.