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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ManyMoose who wrote (420083)	4/5/2011 11:27:52 AM
From: FJB	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793927

Wonkbook: Get ready for a shutdown — and then for another one Posted at 07:08 AM ET, 04/05/2011 By Ezra Klein We look to be headed for a government shutdown -- and maybe two of them. The first is slated to happen at the end of the week. Talks between House Republicans and Senate Democrats have broken down. The entire Republican leadership has released statements saying that $33 billion in cuts -- which is $1 billion more than they initially proposed -- is insufficient as a compromise. The White House has told top agency officials to begin preparing for a shutdown, and John Boehner has begun distributing information to his members detailing their responsibilities in the event the federal government closes its doors. It’s in this context that Paul Ryan is unveiling the Republican’s 2012 budget proposal. Credit where it’s due: He didn’t dodge. His budget privatizes and voucherizes Medicare, dismantles Medicaid and turns it into a system of block grants, reforms the tax code, sets caps on federal spending, and much more. Like many such plans, it says more about how much government can spend than about how it will get spending down to that level while still providing the promised services, but it is, nevertheless, a dramatic proposal that will define the budget debate for the rest of the year. It’s also completely, almost gleefully, unacceptable to Democrats. Some thought that the introduction of Ryan’s 2012 budget would make it easier for the GOP to compromise on funding for the rest of this year. I’m doubtful. By raising the stakes on next year’s battle, it’s just as likely to leave both sides less willing to show weakness on this year’s battle. And then there’s the question of how Republicans and Democrats will avoid a shutdown when 2012 rolls around: Republicans are committing themselves to, and getting their base excited about, a truly radical series of changes to the federal government. That’s going to make it very difficult to agree on a more modest budget when the time comes. Federal officials who’re getting information today on what to do in the event of a shutdown might want to hang onto that pamphlet. I suspect they’re going to be consulting it a lot over the next few years. washingtonpost.com