Conservative Groups Try to Kill Emerging Budget Agreement
Conservative Groups Try to Kill Emerging Budget Agreement
'The deal is not going to be what mainstream Republicans hoped for'
By Alex Rogers @arogDCDec. 10, 2013
An array of powerful outside conservative groups have united to tank the emerging budget deal being negotiated by party leaders.
FreedomWorks is planning to oppose the deal in its current reported form, while Heritage Action and CATO have also announced their disapproval of the agreement being hammered by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the respective House and Senate budget committee chairs.
The deal is not going to be what mainstream Republicans hoped for, said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the ranking Republican on the Budget Committee. Itll probably turn out to be a very tough call for a lot of people who want to have an agreement but also want to see progress made in certain areas.
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Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), a member of the bicameral budget conference working with Murray and Ryan, also told TIME he was worried about the possibility that the deal would include an extension of emergency unemployment insurance. On Dec. 28, about 1.3 million Americans will lose their benefits. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that extending unemployment insurance would cost about $19 billion in fiscal year 2014.
At the last minute Democrats seem to be adding things like unemployment insurance that were never part of the discussion, Portman said.
Sessions said extending the benefit should not be a part of the agreement. Democrats, who largely approve of the proposal to extend unemployment benefits, have yet to fully endorse the deal as well.
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http://swampland.time.com/2013/12/10/conservative-groups-try-to-kill-emerging-budget-agreement/?iid=sl-main-lead