GOP, Obama line up behind modest budget deal

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Top Republicans and President BarackObama are lining up behind a modest but
hard-won bipartisan budgetagreement that seeks to replace a portion of tough spending cuts facingthe
Pentagon and domestic agencies.The deal to ease those cutsfor two years is aimed less at chipping away at
the nation’s $17trillion national debt than it is at trying to help a dysfunctionalCapitol stop lurching
from crisis to crisis. It would set the stage foraction in January on a $1 trillion-plus spending bill for
the budgetyear that began in October.The measure unveiled by House BudgetCommittee Chairman Paul Ryan,
R-Wis., and his Senate counterpart, PattyMurray, D-Wash., blends $85 billion in spending cuts and revenue
fromnew and extended fees — but no taxes or cuts to Medicare beneficiaries —to replace $63 billion in cuts
to agency budgets over the coming twoyears.The package would raise the Transportation SecurityAdministration
fee on a typical nonstop, round-trip airline ticket from$5 to $10; require newly hired federal workers to
contribute 1.3percentage points more of their salaries toward their pensions; and trimcost-of-living
adjustments to the pensions of military retirees underthe age of 62. Hospitals and other health care
providers would have toabsorb two additional years of a 2-percentage-point cut in theirMedicare
reimbursements.The plan pales compared with earlier,failed attempts at a "grand bargain" that
would trade tax hikes forstructural curbs to ever-growing benefit programs like Medicare andSocial Security.
But it would at least bring some stability on thebudget to an institution — Congress — whose approval
ratings are in thegutter."Our deal puts jobs and economic growth first by rollingback … harmful cuts
to education, medical research, infrastructureinvestments and defense jobs for the next two years,"
Murray said.Ryanis set to pitch the measure to skeptical conservatives at a closed-doorGOP meeting on
Wednesday. Democrats are set to discuss it as well, butthe measure won an immediate endorsement from
President Barack Obama ifonly tepid approval from top Capitol Hill Democrats like House MinorityLeader Nancy
Pelosi and Rep. Chris Van Hollen, ranking Democrat on theBudget Committee."Tonight’s agreement
represents a step towardenacting a budget for the American people and preventing furthermanufactured crises
that only harm our economy, destroy jobs and weakenour middle class," Pelosi said in a
statement."This agreementmakes sure that we don’t have a government shutdown scenario in January.It
makes sure that we don’t have another government shutdown scenarioin October," Ryan said. "It
makes sure that we don’t lurch from crisisto crisis."The budget deal was one of a few major measures
lefton Congress’ to-do list near the end of a bruising year that hasproduced a partial government shutdown,
a flirtation with a first-everfederal default and gridlock on Obama’s agenda.In a blow toDemocrats, the
agreement omits an extension of benefits for workersunemployed longer than 26 weeks. The program expires
Dec. 28, whenpayments will be cut off for an estimated 1.3 million individuals.Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid, D-Nev., has agreed to stage a testvote on the measure this year, but it’s not clear whether he’ll
getenough GOP support to advance it.Aides predicted bipartisanapproval in both houses in the next several
days, despite grumbling fromliberals over the omission of the unemployment extension and pressurefrom tea
party-aligned groups that are pushing Republican conservativesto oppose the deal.The agreement would
increase the cap onso-called discretionary spending from the $967 billion mandated byWashington’s failure to
follow up a 2011 budget agreement withadditional deficit cuts. The cap would rise to $1.012 trillion for
theongoing 2014 budget year and up to $1.014 trillion for 2015.Therelief to the Pentagon is relatively
modest since the agency started outfacing a cut of $20 billion below the harsh cuts it faced in 2013;
theagreement replaces those cuts but doesn’t bring the military’s budgetmuch above 2013 levels."While
modest in scale, this agreementrepresents a positive step forward by replacing one-time spending cutswith
permanent reforms to mandatory spending programs that will producereal, lasting savings," said Speaker
John Boehner, R-Ohio.Evenbefore the deal was announced, conservative organizations were attackingthe
proposal as a betrayal of a 2011 agreement that reduced governmentspending and is counted as among the main
accomplishments of teaparty-aligned Republicans who came to power earlier the same year in theHouse.Sen.
Marco Rubio, R-Fla., issued a statement opposing themeasure and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell,
R-Ky., was seen aslikely to oppose it as well. But key Democrats lined up behind Obama,especially after Ryan
eased demands on making federal workers contributemore to their pensions."This agreement isn’t perfect,
but it iscertainly better than no agreement at all," said Van Hollen, the topHouse Budget Committee
Democrat.Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rightsreserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten orredistributed.

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