Congress OKs stopgap, broader budget battle begins

American lawmakers averted a feared government shutdown by approving a stopgap spending bill, but heated debate over future federal spending took shape as they clashed over budget plans. A trio of key votes bookended the action in Congress Wednesday ahead of a two-week  congressional recess, the most urgent one being on the so-called continuing resolution, a $1.2 trillion appropriations measure that will keep the doors of federal agencies open through September, the end of the fiscal year. The Senate passed the measure and with the House following suit and making no changes, it now heads to President Barack Obama's desk for his signature. The resolution locks in the $85 billion in automatic spending cuts mandated by the so-called sequester. But it cushions the blow by providing some flexibility within the Pentagon and other departments to make more targeted, less arbitrary cuts. Obama must sign the continuing resolution into law by March 27 or the US government will go into partial shutdown. With 2013 funding largely resolved, lawmakers turned immediately to the impasse over future government spending, as well as the looming battle over raising the country's borrowing cap. The House passed the plan crafted by Paul Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman and last year's failed Republican vice presidential nominee, along a mostly party-line vote, 221 to 207. "We've done the hard work of bringing this plan forward," House Speaker John Boehner told members on the floor. All US budget blueprints are essentially political messaging documents, leaders on both sides acknowledged Thursday. Still, 10 Republicans voted against the Ryan plan. And when it was brought to a vote in the Democratically-led Senate, it was rejected 40-59, with five Republicans opposed, potentially weakening the Republican bargaining hand during upcoming negotiations. The Ryan blueprint aims to balance the budget over the next 10 years, but Democrats denounce it as a recipe for a decade of austerity marked by slow economic growth and dramatic cuts to social programs, education and training. It would slash federal spending, reform entitlement programs and repeal Obama's landmark healthcare law. It also insists on no new taxes, despite aiming to pare down the $16 trillion national debt. Chris Van Hollen, top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, criticized the Ryan plan as "an uncompromising ideological approach to our budget issues." The Democrats introduced their own budget this week for the first time in four years, and with the Ryan plan rejected, the blueprint by Senate Budget Committee chair Patty Murray could be voted on as early as Friday. Murray is pushing what she says is a balanced approach to deficit reduction, including targeted spending cuts and new tax revenue. "The House Republicans have doubled down on the failed policies" that lost them the 2012 election Murray said. An ideological battle is brewing, with House minority leader Nancy Pelosi accusing Ryan of seeking to line the pockets of the wealthy by hollowing out programs for seniors and the poor like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Pelosi said she was ready to discuss ways to strengthen such entitlements, but warned: "If your goal, though, is to have them wither on the vine or be reduced in a way that does not meet their purpose, then them's fighting words." Boehner hinted that a battle over the debt ceiling loomed too, saying the only way the House would raise the ceiling before it is reached in May would be if Obama agreed to an equal amount in spending cuts. "Dollar for dollar is the plan," Boehner told reporters. "The president has been clear that he's not going to address our entitlement crisis unless we're willing to raise taxes. I think the tax issue has been resolved." "So at this point then, I don't know how we're going to go forward." Asked if he saw the debt ceiling as leverage in getting Obama to agree to entitlement reform, Boehner said "there might be some there" but stressed: "I'm not going to risk the full faith and credit of the federal government." Meanwhile the Defense Department, thanks to the CR which tweaked the defense cuts, said it was delaying by two weeks this week's notices to 800,000 civilian workers that they would face rolling furloughs through September.