The Senate has passed a short-term budget deal that will keep the government funded through next Thursday. The measure was later approved by the House of Representatives.
"We have agreed to an historic amount of cuts for the remainder of this fiscal year, as well as a short-term bridge that will give us time to avoid a shutdown while we get that agreement through both houses and to the President. We will cut $78.5 billion below the Presidentās 2011 budget proposal, and we have reached an agreement on the policy riders. In the meantime, we will pass a short-term resolution to keep the government running through Thursday. That short-term bridge will cut the first $2 billion of the total savings," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker John Boehner said in a joint statement issued after the agreement.
President Obama commended Democrats and Republicans on working together to reach a solution.
"The government will be open for business," Obama said. "That's because today, Americans of different beliefs came together again.
"In the final hours before our government would have been forced to shut down, leaders in both parties reached an agreement that will allow our small businesses to get the loans they need, our families to get the mortgages they applied for, and hundreds of thousands of Americans to show up at work and take home their paychecks on time."
FULL STORY
Aww, we were so close!
So close to what?
Esteban is a little clueless.
I'm always a little clueless, especially when people leave out important details...like clues...!
Please ask one of these Washington smart folks...what did all the CR's "cost" above and beyond the budget in $$$ because of govt contracts and LOST work time by federal employee's preparing for the "shutdown"....
Sadly there was very little planning on the part of contractors. Most of them had no idea what would happen until yesterday.
Round and round we go, where we stop everybody knows....
See ya next week..... š
Drama , Drama , Drama. They love to make us SWEAT.
Good job all.
So...if the government workers are essentially going on Strike, couldn't we, as the American populous just go and hire new people to replace them? Obviously nothing is getting done, so I think we should be able to do such a thing.
Here is an idea, how about congress and the government gets paid when they work. So if they decide to take a vacation or step out, NO MONEY!
That is what I would have preferred to do when the TX democrats fled the state...twice. Fire them all, both sides. We pay them to do this (communicate and solve problems), not play games.
Michael, if your reference to āgovernment workersā is meaning members of Congress then I'm with you, but if you mean it as the day-to-day workers that bust their butts to ensure the government operates smoothly then you might rethink your thoughts. I am a government worker that does not get overtime, cannot strike and has to hear it from everybody that thinks they know everything. I can assure you that I work more hours in a week then almost every private citizen out there and I get no compensation. I certainly don't do it for the money because I could be earning three times what I make for Uncle Sam. We the dedicated few do it because we love our work and we believe we make a difference. I spend most of my time away from my family on trips that last two and three weeks each month. After flying 11 hours home and landing at 3:00 am Iām expected to be at work by 7:30 the same morning. So please donāt insult me or the other people that have dedicated their lives to serve the American people by being an American servant.
You fail to understand that more often than not, when the government does NOTHING, it is the best that can happen. It's when they stick their noses in something that it gets screwed up. I was kind of hoping for a shutdown for at least 6 months or so... Maybe after that long, people would come to realize how little of the bureaucracy we *really* need... The Founding Fathers did not intend for us to have this large of a federal government...
@Jeff If I could give you a standing ovation I would. *Salutes* Well played, very well played.
To DarronFreed....our founding fathers also rode horses, used candles for light and thought it was just fine for own slaves. Is that what you want to go back to?
Here we go again... we have went through MONTHS of this. Its going to be the same next week.
unfortunately, u are so right! and i am scared to find out where the cuts actually came from.
As long as the government is using up their time with this, it's less time they can spend to *really* screw things up. We NEED things like this to keep the Congress-Critters busy so that they actually think that they are doing something *useful*... Back in the old days, they would have been happy just maintaining the status quo... These days, they think that they have to do some sort of "change" - for better or worse...
Darren – you "fear" to see the cuts? " When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. " Thomas Jefferson said that. I could not agree more.
Still begs the question as to where that extra $78.5 billion is coming out of... Education? Medicare? Surely not our defense budget...
How can you say anything about the defense budget you jerk you wanted to watch them starve us and to the moron wanting six months of this crap u don't have kids and you can either support our husbands who protect your uneducated butt or get in front of them and be target practice I don't care but ppl who were for the shut down and starvation loss of homes for military families you have zero knowledge of what sacrifices we already make so you can run your mouth about stuff you know nothing about last I checked you were gonna keep getting a check and getting to eat while my husband goes and fights a war knowing his family would be at home starving so go to hell or find another country to live in!
@ Pamela- Thank you for your families sacrifice for us. Then I would like to say your are being defensive. The person was wondering what was next. The sacrifices will come from all of us, because some bankers used little to no discression in giving out loans and the republicans decited not to have the wealthiest pay taxes. The game of chicken and drama will proceed this week. Still the wealthiest have not been called to do their part in paying their taxes. The women who will suffer in coming to the clinics to get support in womens health care, education, medicare, and social security will suffer before the wealthy have to pay a dime. Our military will be one of the last. The senate and congress better work thru the weekend though. If so much is at stake, they better be working overtime. They created this mess they better clean it up.
I have no problem with cutting defense spending by at least 25%. The amount of waste in that spending is nothing to be proud of. I do not think the military personnel should suffer in the cuts though, as they do a difficult and dangerous job that I would never consider doing myself, not to mention the stress of families being separated and at risk of life and limb.
The only reason we have a massive deficit is the huge defense spending, and tax cuts to the wealthy - BOTH ARE GOP CREATED. Historically it is the democrats that balance the budget and the GOP that spends, so you people blabbering about "tax and spend liberals" need to look up the stats.
Hopefully the Republicans gave up on their religious anti-abortion nonsense. There are a few groups and events I'm involved with on Facebook to protect seperation of church and state. People are getting VERY angry about this, and some of them are getting ready to lose their jobs in 2012 if they don't stop...believe THAT!!
Clearly, you have no concept of what the founders meant by separation of church and state. It is meant to keep the state, or government out of the church, not the other way around. If at 5 weeks a babies heartbeat is detected, please tell me when life begins?
If you are referrng to Planned Parenthood, it actually has little do do with abortion and a lot to do with the fact that every single service planned parenthood offers, with the exception of abortions, is also offered by the Health department. we don't need to be funding two organizations to do the same thing. In addition, there are already federal laws in place that prevent federal funding from paying for abortions. The funding that was there was only for things like birth control, std testing, cancer screening, all which can be done at the health department, often free of charge, usually it is income based.
Everyone has a right to their own set of values, no matter what they are based on. Stop blaming religion for things you don't agree with. Just because a person has religion it doesn't mean their rights to a political voice are taken away. You are completely misconstruing the meaning of separation of church and state. Both parties held us hostage by not agreeing and allowing the one issue to hold things up. You can't & shouldn't force Republicans to sign something they disagree with; the rider should have been removed and dealt with separately, not used as collateral. And yes, we will all feel the results of the stubborness of both parties. Your spin just doesn't fly.
I don't want to pay for someone to kill their unborn baby...
Have you ever heard of Former Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson? This is audio only but through her reveals the truth about Planned Parenthood. You can decide whether you think $300,000,000 (that's almost a third of a billion dollars) of our tax dollars should go to Planned Parenthood. Trying to balance the budget requires cutting things out that you don't need to spend money on and I think this is one of those things. Planned Parenthood is not what it really advertises itself to be. (http://tobtoday.com/Audio/unplanned.mp3)
Cnn did not print my replay here. So I will do it in sound bites. Religious people think it ok if they put 6 embyos in the women and freeze the rest or throw them out when they are done? The pope is not god. He is a person. People should not be the judge and jury for others. If church and state are separate why don't they pay taxes, if they want to bring church into politics, they should pay taxes.
Thank god it was avoided but now the question arises why did it take so long or have to come so close to force a deal to be made?
Good year for newbies to run for office!!
What price is put on our troops live who r riskn thier live for us. When will our president take a pay cut?
Our President is the first one I have ever heard of who actually did something about keeping lobbyists(bribe-givers) out of the White House.
Why not ask the ones in Congress to take a pay cut? In every depression, recession, and bad economic downturn, Congress has voted themselves pay raises. They do it every time, every year, regardless of how many are out of work or how bad the economy or Federal budget is....they do it because there is nothing stopping them.
Nothing stops Congress from taking bribes.
Nothing stops them from playing partisan politics with our lives.
Nothing stops them because they write the laws. They just write themselves a check whenever they want or hold out a hand for the nearest lobbyist to fill with money.
There is nothing to stop them from doing this every week for the next thousand years.
Nothing.
Sorry to say these Troops are losing their lives for NOTHING, we don"t need protection from the Afgans and the Iraqes. We need their Oil. 90% percent of the Armed Forces is in it for the Job and family Benefits.
This is just a temporary solution. The "fiscal" year ends in October !!! So I guess we will be going through this again in October?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
technically fiscal year ends September 30th. Just so you know
Wealthy better pay their share.
what price do we put on our soldiers to make them have pay cut. When will the president take a paycut??????
Is there an echo in here?
Is there an echo in here?
Why are commoners so concerned about the president's salary (~$300K/yr). This wage is chump change relative to wall-street traders and many employees of private companies, doctors, lawyers, etc. I dare anyone on here to job shadow some managers in the private sector, and then complain about wasteful spending. Wasteful spending in the private sector is never debated but those costs trickle down massively to the general public through health insurance costs for pharma/biotech products, mediocre coverage through verizon, low tech American cars, energy (oil, etc).
First congress men and women need to take a pay cut. While I don't agree with a lot of things Obama has done any man dumb enough / brave enough to want to become president deserves a hefty paycheck. Just not to hefty.
I am proud of both Democratic and Republican's for working things out. For the first time in ages we have seen COOPERATION in Washington. The People in this country demand more of this! As a military retiree I know the troops and their families appreciate all the hard work you put in to pass this along with the million of Federal Workers. Thank You!!!!