Budget impasse shows GOP shaping Capitol Hill's agenda

WASHINGTON -- High drama consumed Capitol Hill this week as lawmakers found themselves at an impasse again over how to fund the government through the new fiscal year, starting Oct. 1, and anticipating another ugly battle over the debt ceiling that could potentially cause global economic chaos.

If that sounds familiar, it should. Since the 2010 midterm elections, when a wave ushered a new GOP majority into the House of Representatives, Congress has exerted most of its energy in blistering battles over government spending, reducing the deficit and continued efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.  

Those fights have left Washington deeply dysfunctional, analysts say. But looking at it a different way, they've also proved something else: The GOP is in control, and the fight is between right and center-right on the ideological spectrum. Despite Democrats holding the White House and the Senate, it's Republican Congress members who have had an outsize influence on Washington's agenda.

“It’s Groundhog Day over and over again,” said James Thurber, director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University. “It fits into (conservatives’) philosophy that they want smaller government, so they’re focused totally on spending, debt and deficit.”

In the spring of 2011, Obama and lawmakers narrowly avoided shutting down the government after the GOP managed to slash $39 billion from the federal budget, at the time the largest single cut in history.

Months later, the government nearly defaulted on its loans and upturned the fragile economic recovery around the world as congressional Republicans refused to raise the debt ceiling until the president conceded to a broader plan to reduce the debt. That crisis culminated at the beginning of this year in the triggering of the sequester -- a round of $1.2 trillion in spending cuts set to go into effect over 10 years if Congress doesn’t reverse them.

Now, once again, Congress has turned its attention to the budget and spending. The bill that passed the House last week locks the sequester cuts from earlier this year into place, in addition to stripping funds from the Affordable Care Act. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the continuing resolution will not pass his chamber, and Senate Republicans are currently embroiled in a battle about what to do next.

Michelle Diggles, a senior political analyst for the center-left think tank Third Way, said attention naturally turns to issues of spending after an economic downturn. Conservatives have made a compelling case in their districts that the debt is the problem and should take top priority.  

“When you’re in a time of economic downturn coming out of a recession, there’s an emphasis on how can we spend more responsibly and (on) austerity,” said Diggles. “It’s really a confluence of a shocking amount of debt -- $16 trillion sounds like a scary number -- at a time when the economy is stumbling, and people say, ‘I think those two things are related.’”

Economists, of course, disagree as to how pressing it is to address the national debt, in light of a sluggish economy that some say requires more investment in spurring economic growth.

But that has not happened. During the last three years, most other major legislation has fallen by the wayside, particularly priorities important to Democratic constituencies. President Obama’s attempts to get traction for jobs legislation failed. Comprehensive immigration reform cleared the Senate, but has not been taken up by the House. Modest bipartisan gun control legislation couldn’t even pass the upper chamber. Measures to address climate change coming out of either the House or the Senate are laughable.

 “We’ve been consistently calling on Congress to end its ceaseless focus on an imaginary debt crisis and focus on the actual jobs crisis,” said Jeff Hauser, a spokesman for AFL-CIO, the labor group. “This is a cataclysmically bad labor market and this focus on the deficit and the debt and deal-making surrounding hostage-taking has obscured the focus to invest in jobs in the short term and economic growth in the long term.”

Hauser said that the minority party has been able to do this through unprecedented tactics—namely, tying their policy demands to the debt ceiling—and that Democrats were not quick enough to break the habit.

 “They’re not taking up any of the agenda items of the president to invest in human capital,” Thurber said.

Lia Parada, legislative director of America’s Voice, an immigration advocacy group, is more optimistic that Republicans can be pressured to turn to other things.

“Yes, they have to handle the [continuing resolution] and the debt limit but there’s plenty of time on the calendar,” she said. “It’s time for Speaker Boehner to bring comprehensive immigration reform up for a vote.”

Some say that the singular focus on spending and debt might actually spell trouble for a party that is trying to revamp itself in the wake of the 2012 election loss and expand its appeal to other voters, namely minorities, women and young people.  

Still, cutting federal spending and rolling back the Affordable Care Act —which many conservatives consider a destructive and costly entitlement program—is being cheered among the base.

“The American people are finally being heard in Washington, and their message is clear: ObamaCare is not ready for full implementation, and we can’t afford it,” said Matt Kibbe, president of the grassroots conservative organization FreedomWorks in a statement.