House Speaker John Boehner appeared moments ago to announce that a deal has been reached and that a government shutdown has been averted.
Boehner in the past half hour presented the agreement to his caucus, and plans are moving ahead to pass a continuing resolution for at least several days while the deal is written into legislative language and given to Members to read.
It appears the agreement includes about $38.5 billion in cuts – a concession by Obama – while dropping abortion related language – a concession by Republicans.
At the White House, President Obama said the deal “invests in our future” while also making “the biggest annual spending cut in history.” The president adopted a unifying stance instead of a vindictive one, saying the deal happened because “Americans of different beliefs came together,” adding, “It’s my sincere hope that we can continue to come together.”
It appears the White House is finally learning how to present a president to the public, stage managing Obama’s appearance and remarks to perfection.
Obama played up his presidentiality for all it was worth, speaking directly into the camera as if making an Oval Office statement – the camera panning in slowly to create drama – and positioned in the Blue Room with the bluish-white nighttime image of the lighted Washington Monument behind him.
The monument, he noted, will be open to the public tomorrow.
What’s more, Obama lined up what we White House press corps skeptics – it doesn’t take a cynic to see the manipulation – like to call the sob story.
A few days ago, I received a letter from a mother in Longmont, Colorado. Over the year, her son’s eighth grade class saved up money and worked on projects so that next week they could take a class trip to Washington, D.C. They even have an appointment to lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
The mother wrote that for the last few days the kids in her son’s class had been worried and upset that they might have to cancel their trip because of a shutdown. She asked those of us in Washington to get past our petty grievances and make things right. And she said, “Remember, the future of this country is not for us. It’s for our children.”
Today we acted on behalf of our children’s future.
Here are a couple of paragraphs from Boehner’s statement:
I’m pleased that Senator Reid and I and the White House have been able to come to an agreement that will, in fact, cut spending and keep our government open. And I expect that the House will vote yet tonight on a short-term continuing resolution . . . to allow for time for this agreement to be put together in legislative form and brought to the floor of the House and Senate for a vote.
And so I would expect the final vote on this to occur mid next week. But I do believe that we’ll have what we’ll call a bridge continuing resolution pass tonight to ensure that government is open.
Boehner and Senater Majority Leader Reid issued a joint statement moments ago:
We will cut $78.5 billion below the President’s 2011 budget proposal, and we have reached an agreement on the policy riders. In the meantime, we will pass a short-term resolution to keep the government running through Thursday. That short-term bridge will cut the first $2 billion of the total savings.
And here is the full video of Obama’s statement if you missed it.
14 thoughts on “Obama, Boehner and Reid Strike a Budget Deal”
Now all of you can go see the Washington Monument this weekend. Boy we couldn’t even get 10% off the budget They are all so happy with themselves. If I can’t get 10% off a big item I feel I’m getting a bad deal..
This calls for a round of golf maybe even in Williamsburg afterall.
Here, here, Janice.
Maybe this is the real way to control him: threaten his leisure activities.
I couldn’t believe my eyes. TOTUS gave a canned speech, in which he cited the sad (fictional most likely) tale of a mother, or was it a teacher? who wanted to bring kids to see the Washington Memorial but worried that the government might shut down. Oh woe is me! A canned speech at 11:10 pm!!!
Then I had to listen to Harry Reid & Mitch McConnell engage in a love-fest. With each other!!! I think I vomited in my mouth.
Seriously those idiots have a bad case of ITB (inside the beltway) disease. Symptoms: blindness, deafness, and loss of cognitive function.
Thank goodness.
Next up, to raise or not to raise our debt ceiling.
So he got away once more.
I got up early today, a lovely spring morning, and the American budget deal was the first news item I heard about. It was reported that Obama was relieved, cuts were necessary but painful, well, it sounded like it was all his doings, the great hero.About this entertaining sob story, the wreath on the tomb was maybe a little over the top. Only a really good actor with long practice can keep a straight face while telling this obviously false story.
Phew. I don’t know about you, but I am immensely relived that a bunch of kids can partake in their field trip – and they should enjoy it too because with the way our country’s spending is going, they won’t be able to afford any form of trip when they are adults. Obama has a bizillion advisers – don’t you think at least one of them should tell him to drop these b.s. “everyday hardworking american/kid/sick/poor/old” becuase they make him look ridiculous and out of touch.
Well done, Washington. Especially you liberals – if you weren’t around, us conservatives would surely be killing off the old, poor, sick and children with our extreme and radical budget cuts.
Yes–these treacly “real” stories are sooo weak. Boo-hoo, He also needs to lose the phrase “at the pump,” because he has probably never put gas in a car in his life.
The rhetoric is astonishing and believed by many who speak it.
“I bark at no man’s bid. I will never come and go, and fetch and carry, at the whistle of the great man in the White House no matter who he is.” Congressman David Crockett (Tenn.) 1832.
We need about a hundred of these types of men (or women) who will also say, “I told the people of my district that I would serve them as faithfully as I had done; but if not … you may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas.”
Unfortunately, we have been invaded by the Borg, and they think resistance is futile.
The great American hero, Davy Crockett, did go to Texas and was one of the brave defenders of the Alamo. Beltway politicians could learn a thing or two from honorable men like Davy Crockett. Like maybe drawing a line in the sand and refusing to surrender. Or some other old notion like defending freedom.
A “real story” I saw that was particularly annoying was about the cancer patient set to enter NIH on Monday–and how he or she (I forget) was now consigned to certain death…blat life blat death…sob.
Is it just me or was Dear Leader a striking shade of orange last night? I thought it was my TV, but seeing the video today – he’s got the same tint.
And this on top of the Daily Mail story on the photos of The One’s head, showing what appears to be extensive scarring …. from what, exactly?
This whole Kabuki theater going on in the White House just gets stranger & stranger.
Comments are closed.