For most of this year, the brutal cuts to federal spending known as the sequester have wreaked havoc on important programs, cutting off hundreds of thousands from Head Start and low-income housing assistance, setting back scientific research and environmental protection, and costing more than a million jobs. Getting rid of the sequester for domestic programs was a high priority for Congressional Democrats, and they achieved much of what they wanted in a budget deal reached on Tuesday that in other important respects was disappointing.
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The deal will cancel 61 percent of the sequester cuts for nondefense discretionary domestic programs this fiscal year, adding back $31.5 billion over the next two years to be divided among departments like transportation, education, and health and human services. That's a significant achievement, considering that many Republicans want those cuts to continue in perpetuity.
Paul Ryan, the House negotiator, ignored the Tea Party's insistence that the sequester was untouchable, agreeing to raise discretionary spending in 2014 by $77 billion above his own budget proposal. Patty Murray, the Senate negotiator, resisted Republican demands for new cuts to safety-net programs. As a result, money will soon start flowing to programs that have been starved all year.
But the details of the agreement show that Republican loathing of taxes and domestic spending continue to dominate the budget debate. The full domestic and military sequester should have been eliminated, not just part of it. Even more important, a balanced and fair agreement would have compensated for the new domestic spending with tax increases on the wealthiest Americans by closing unnecessary loopholes. But Mr. Ryan entered the talks with an immovable position that new tax revenue was off the table, forcing negotiators to cobble together more than a dozen other cuts or higher fees to offset new spending.
To save money for those at the very top, new federal workers will have to pay more for their pension plan. The cost-of-living increase on pensions for military retirees younger than 62 will be reduced. And the security fee built into every airline ticket will rise by as much as $5 a ticket, making travel more expensive for all passengers.
The deal is too small to affect long-term growth because Republicans wouldn't consider big investments needed to improve education and training. It will not provide enough for cities and states to undertake major infrastructure repair, putting people back to work. And because it does not provide for the extension of jobless benefits that expire on Jan. 1 for 1.3 million people, it fails to fulfill a basic responsibility to the long-term unemployed.
The agreement will extend cuts to Medicare providers for two extra years, 2022 and 2023, a provision thrown in solely so Mr. Ryan could claim that the package reduces the deficit. That provision alone could have paid for the benefits for the unemployed. But Republicans have so completely lost their way that doing the right thing — reducing the sequester — required political cover.
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