Freedom Caucus Republicans remain cautiously optimistic about the budget deal, despite acknowledging the challenges that lie ahead.
House Republicans Making Progress on Budget Deal, Potential Government Shutdown Looms
Some House Republicans are seeing signs of progress toward a Republican deal on the 2024 budget, with days to go before a potential partial government shutdown.
For weeks, members of the staunchly conservative House Freedom Caucus have been debating with their fellow House Republicans about what conservative priorities they will prioritize in this year’s budget.
Members of the House Freedom Caucus, who had widely disagreed with the terms of a June agreement to raise the U.S. debt limit, have called for the Republican-controlled House to cap discretionary spending at a point below that seen in the June deal.
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While the June debt limit agreement called for a discretionary spending cap of no more than $1.59 trillion, the House Freedom Caucus had called for an even lower 2024 discretionary spending cap of $1.47 trillion. Speaking with NTD News’ “Capitol Report” on Thursday, Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) said his fellow Republicans were closing in on a discretionary spending number that could win enough votes to pass in the House after a “healthy, constructive, intense, exhaustive conference meeting.”
According to Mr. Good, who is a member of the House Freedom Caucus, House Republicans are zeroing in on a discretionary spending target of $1.526 trillion this year.
Funding Border Security, Countering Biden Agenda
In addition to cutting discretionary spending, House Republicans have been debating a range of additional conservative policy riders to attach to this year’s budget.
The House version of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), for example, included provisions to bar the military from spending on abortion-related travel and on transgender surgeries. The ongoing budget discussions among House Republicans have focused on tacking conservative objectives onto other areas of the national budget.
Mr. Good said his Republican House colleagues are “implementing good Republican policy and, bill by bill, they are eliminating the climate-environmental energy extremism that’s permeated every policy to the Biden-Pelosi-Schumer regime perpetrated on the American people for the last two years.”
The Virginia lawmaker said his fellow Republicans have also added provisions “eliminating a lot of diversity, equity, inclusion, [critical race theory], LGBTQ transgender funding, transgender surgery funding, abortion funding, those sorts of things.”
If lawmakers can’t reach a full agreement on the 2024 budget, they may go for a short-term continuing resolution (CR) that funds the government for a shorter period of time while Congress can resolve any disagreements over the budget for the rest of the year.
House Freedom Caucus members have signaled opposition to a so-called “clean CR,” preferring a CR that forces through additional conservative policy preferences.
Mr. Good said one of the items of discussion during a Thursday House Republican Conference meeting was a set of terms for a CR. He said any potential stopgap spending bill could include a provision that would cut $10 billion in government spending over 30 days and would force the implementation of provisions of a Republican bill called the “Secure the Border” Act.
Republicans Disagreement Part of ‘Healthy Debate’: Freedom Caucus Member
The House Republicans have faced growing criticism over intraparty debates that have delayed the passage of this year’s budget bills. On Thursday, for example, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre said “extreme House Republicans showed yet again that their chaos is marching us toward a reckless and damaging government shutdown.”
“Extreme House Republicans can’t even get an agreement among themselves to keep the government running or to fund the military,” Ms. Jean Pierre added. “They keep demanding more extreme policies as a condition to do their job and keep the government open.”
Mr. Norman, in defense of his House Republican colleagues, said that the House Republican conference is ”having a healthy debate” about the budget.
“We have honest disagreements,” Mr. Norman added. “But the good news is spending is now top and center. Along with immigration, we were insistent on getting our spending under control.”
House GOP Still Faces Messaging Challenge: Former Member
While the House Republicans may yet find an agreement on the 2024 budget, they will still need to defend those policy demands against a Democrat-controlled Senate and White House with very different priorities. House Republicans will also have to defend against criticism that they took too long to bring their budget proposals together.
Doug Collins, a former Republican representative from Georgia, said his former Republican colleagues can expect little outside help arguing their case if the budget battle comes down to a potential shutdown.
Mr. Collins recalled the 2013 government shutdown, in which a Republican-controlled House challenged the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as Obamacare.
“Even with an issue such as Obamacare, it was very difficult to win public opinion over because the media, mass media and others, kick in and say, ‘Oh, you can’t stop, you can’t shut down the government,'” Mr. Collins told “Capitol Report” on Thursday.
While he insisted only about 15 percent of the government’s activities actually do cease during a government shutdown, and “everybody gets paid” back after the shutdown ends, the prospect of a failure to pass a budget on time is always met with emotionally charged rhetoric.
“Everybody clouds with the emotional instead of the reality that we’ve got a country that is drowning in debt right now and we’re not doing anything about it,” Mr. Collins said.
In this current budget debate, the Biden White House has claimed delays caused by House Republicans risk stopping programs designed to combat the flow of fentanyl into the country.
House Republicans Have a Stark Choice to Make
“House Republicans have a stark choice to make: will they honor their word, meet their responsibility to avoid a shutdown, and act on life and death priorities like fighting the fentanyl crisis?” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a Sept. 5 statement.
Mr. Collins pushed back on the White House’s comments about the fentanyl crisis, calling them “hypocritical.”
“Joe Biden has done enough to exacerbate the Fentanyl crisis himself by not closing our border,” Mr. Collins said.
The former Republican lawmaker said the White House’s fentanyl comments are an example of Democrats framing the debate around an emotionally charged issue they can blame on Republicans.
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Ct (ACA) and faced backlash from the public.
“We didn’t have a good messaging strategy, and it became ‘Republicans shut down the government over Obamacare,'” Mr. Collins said in an interview with The Epoch Times.
He emphasized the importance of Republicans conveying a clear and concise message that resonates with the American people and explains their stance on the budget.
“Messaging is everything, and it’s got to be really clear and concise,” Mr. Collins said. “If it’s not, then you’re going to have the media, you’re going to have the opposition running with it.”
With just days remaining to reach an agreement on the budget, House Republicans are under pressure to ensure they effectively communicate their priorities and avoid a repeat of past messaging challenges.
As the negotiations continue, the fate of the 2024 budget and the potential for a government shutdown hang in the balance. The House Freedom Caucus and other House Republicans will need to find common ground on spending caps and conservative policy riders in order to move forward with a budget deal. At the same time, they must navigate the opposition from Democrats who hold majority control in the Senate and White House. How these debates unfold in the coming days will determine the course of the nation’s financial future and the potential consequences of a government shutdown.
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