Senate Democrat and Republican leaders on Tuesday praised the new budget and debt ceiling deal, but it faces skepticism among some lawmakers who question how revenue is raised in the two-year agreement.
“The agreement reaches the basic points that were important to most Senate Republicans,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said, including no tax increases and reforms to entitlement spending. “I’m hopeful and optimistic that bill will come over to the Senate, and when it does, we’ll take it up.”
Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the bill satisfies Democrats by boosting spending equally between defense and domestic budgets.
“This agreement is not perfect, but it does address investment in domestic priorities that benefit the middle class and also defense spending,” Reid said after meeting with fellow Democratic lawmakers to discuss the deal.
But Democratic and Republican lawmakers in the Senate are hardly cheering about the deal. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., said he has not made up his mind about the deal, but said it’s not tough enough for him.
“It doesn’t shut down the government and it deals with the debt ceiling, but how we do it is something I have to study,” he said, adding he is concerned entitlement reform in the measure does not go far enough. “There is some significant reform we ought to do.”
The bill raises spending by $80 billion over two years, suspends the borrowing limit until March 2017, and pays for some of it by reforming the Social Security Disability Insurance program.
The cost of raising spending is also covered by selling more of the nation’s strategic oil reserve and by making reductions to other programs, including a crop insurance reimbursement measure, which would take a $3 billion hit.
Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, said farm state lawmakers are concerned about the change, which he said could damage the crop insurance industry. Roberts and other lawmakers may try to make changes to it when the House and Senate begin considering the fiscal 2016 spending measure known as the omnibus.
“I’m very concerned about it,” Robert said, adding that he just found out about the cut. “It represents a clear danger probably to most of the producers in our country who rely on that. I hope we can maybe fix it during the consideration of the omnibus bill.”
Senators were also grumbling over the secretive nature of the deal, which was negotiated mostly by outgoing Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and President Obama, along with Democrats.
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas., said it the crop insurance issue and other items lawmakers object to might be addressed in other legislation this year. But the deal is what they’ll vote on, he said.
“Given the fact that this was held so close to the vest, and there wasn’t a lot of consultation with committees and chairmen, I understand there have been people who are complaining, with justification,” Cornyn said. “But this was Speaker Boehner’s last hurrah, along with the White House and it is what it is, and we are going to have to deal with it.”
