by Pete Kasperowicz | Sep 8, 2017
President Trump shocked and angered Republicans on Wednesday by agreeing with Democrats on a bill to suspend the debt ceiling for three months, but by Thursday, Republican lawmakers and aides were acknowledging that
Trump's plan was better for Republicans than the plan put forward by House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
Many Republicans weren't all that happy with either proposal. Ryan was proposing an 18-month suspension of the debt ceiling that would have let the government keep borrowing as much as it needed, and said the long time frame was needed to provide for market stability.
But Democrats said they could only agree to a three-month suspension since
they wanted leverage more immediately for other issues they want to pursue in the coming weeks. Trump's decision to take the Democratic plan was seen by some as a betrayal of Republicans, and a sign Trump was abandoning the GOP on a key legislative package.
After the dust settled, however, Republican lawmakers and aides made it clear they saw the three-month plan as
a slight improvement over Ryan's plan.
The reason was simple.
Neither plan involved a commitment to new spending cuts as a condition for allowing more government borrowing, something many conservatives wanted to see. With that key piece lacking, many Republicans preferred a shorter term agreement for the same reason Democrats did: it will let them try much sooner to leverage the next debt ceiling fight for their own policy prescription, in this case, spending cuts.
A source with the conservative House Freedom Caucus said that group has not met to discuss the plan that Trump settled on Wednesday. But this source said many members of the group seem to agree that both deals were bad because
neither included a commitment to spending cuts.
But even the RSC indicated Wednesday that
Trump's deal is better for Republicans than what Ryan was pushing. For example, RSC member Tom Cole, R-Okla., said Wednesday that he preferred Trump's plan over Ryan's.
"I think
a short-term deal is much easier to vote for than an 18-month or two-year extension with no offsets," he said on MSNBC, describing the choices that were put before the GOP. Cole cast the deal Trump reached as a slight delay that will let Republicans try again soon for spending cuts.
"I think a much worse deal would have been to extend the debt ceiling with no spending cuts," he added. "So we live to fight another day."
But a spokesman for the group agreed that
Ryan's plan was worse since it would have removed the GOP's leverage for spending cuts for an even longer period of time.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/trumps-debt-deal-was-better-than-paul-ryans-many-republicans-admit/article/2633784
