Ever since their doomed-to-fail attempt to defund Obamacare in 2013, conservatives have bristled at criticism over their legislative tactics. But now they are presented with a hill that is actually worth dying on.
John Boehner, who is halfway out of the door, has struck a budget deal with President Obama that is truly cynical. It resorts to precisely the gimmickry for which Republicans once rightly excoriated congressional Democrats.
It papers over $80 billion in spending increases now, and the lifting of spending caps that were negotiated in 2011, with a laughable promise to cut spending almost a decade from now by extending sequestration. Call it the J. Wellington Wimpy Budget: “I’d gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.” Can anyone imagine a Congress in 10 years time feeling bound by such a deal struck by pols who have long since left the federal stage?
The deal amounts to the abolition of spending limits that were imposed against great odds in the Obama era. It is not something conservatives should accept, let alone start with as an opening bid. Boehner is proposing to give back the progress made under his leadership.
We have defended Boehner in this space for recognizing the need to forgo mad policy dashes toward goals that were clearly unattainable with Obama in the White House. But it’s quite another matter for him to give back gains already made without firing a shot.
Another unacceptable provision in this budget would raid Social Security’s retirement trust fund to extend the life of the Disability Insurance trust fund, which will run out of money next year. Republicans specifically denounced this gimmick in their own budget document this year, calling it “a short-term and short-sighted measure that would necessitate earlier cuts to Social Security benefits for current and future retirees while failing to address the underlying causes of DI’s financing problem.”
To be sure, the deal contains a few modest reforms to crack down on disability fraud, which has become even more rampant in recent years with the onset of economic hard times. It increases fines and penalties, slightly tightens evidentiary standards for disability applicants, and expands investigatory powers for the government to detect fraud.
But that’s not nearly enough. The disability program cannot be saved for those who actually need it without a much more thorough overhaul and an investigation of old claims to end the free ride for those who are cheating.
There’s nothing like a hard deadline in an election year to make that happen. If Republicans kick the can down the road to Obama’s successor, it will be easy for him to thwart any reform plans with a veto.
If they want to give their new speaker a truly clean slate, then House Republicans must draft a proposal that adheres to existing spending caps and force Obama to commit publicly to the reform of the Disability Insurance fund in the coming months. They should not accept Boehner’s bad deal.
