This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Washington • Speaker Paul Ryan on Friday delivered a message to conservatives unhappy with last year's pact with President Barack Obama that boosted spending for the Pentagon and domestic agencies: You're stuck with it.
Ryan is facing a restive right wing that could deliver him an embarrassing setback by denying the votes for a GOP budget this year. Ryan wants to abide by last year's higher spending deal but wrap in conservative ideas like a balanced budget for the future.
The Wisconsin Republican said at a party meeting Friday that conservative demands to roll back the spending increases could mean a new round of Washington gridlock. That gridlock guarantees the increases get rubber-stamped anyway, either as a catchall omnibus spending measure or by keeping the budget on automatic pilot past the Oct. 1 start of the 2017 fiscal year.
At issue is the arcane, often frustrating budget process on Capitol Hill. The annual budget by Congress typically makes bold promises, but in reality it's a nonbinding blueprint that sets the stage for follow-up legislation, specifically a round of appropriations bills and, in some years, special budget legislation that would allow Republicans to avoid a Democratic filibuster in the Senate and deliver cuts to Obama.
It gets complicated, but basically last year's budget deal passed with Democratic votes and was signed by Obama. But any new GOP budget must pass with nearly unanimous Republican support since it will also call for big cuts to domestic programs favored by Democrats and deny Obama his proposed tax increases.
The GOP source in the meeting said Ryan told the rank-and-file that it would be a shame it the party couldn't produce a budget but that "the sky won't fall" since there's no fiscal "cliff" like the need to increase the government's debt limit.