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Federal Budget Storm Still Brewing

AP Photo/J. David Ake

Lawmakers were away from Washington all of August, but there was little reason for them to take that extended vacation. They only have until the end of September to fund the government or else the government will shut down.

Remember sequestration? That's those indiscriminate budget cuts that ripped across the military and most every federal agency a few years ago. Two years ago lawmakers were able to get sequestration off the books by reaching a bipartisan budget deal, and Virginia Democratic Senator Mark Warner bemoans that those talks aren’t taking place now. 

“Now we’re steaming down the path toward the cliff at the end of September and there’s a complete unwillingness, at least from the Republicans so far to even negotiate.”

With no budget talks taking place, lawmakers fear the government is screeching towards another shutdown or that sequestration will kick back. Warner says that'd be terrible for the commonwealth's economy.

“Nothing would  be worse for our region, for Virginia, than the return of sequestration. Not just in terms of the dreadful hits it would be to defense budget but also to education, to research, to law enforcement. It’s no way to run the federal government, to have something that was set up to be so stupid that no rational people would let happen come at us again.”

Virginia Republican Morgan Griffith says lawmakers in both party’s are to blame for the pending budget storm because no one is willing to take a political hit by addressing entitlement reforms, like changing Social Security and Medicare.

"I don’t know if it’s better but we have to come up with a comprehensive plan and unfortunately people aren't willing to look at mandatory spending.”

Senator Warner agrees, but he says that’s only part of the picture.

“Any mix that’s going to require revenues or willingness to make changes in entitlement programs, revenues are hard for Republicans. Talking about entitlement reform is hard for Democrats. I believe forcing those two items together actually might force both parties off the dime a bit.”

At least one Virginia Republican is with Warner on his call for tax increases and entitlement reforms. Congressman Scott Rigell says members of the GOP have boxed themselves into a corner by endorsing Grover Norquist's pledge to never raise taxes.  
 

“It’s not based on math. It’s based on more of a, kind of a I think a philosophical point but it’s not mathematical. So that needs to be rejected as well and come up with a ratio. A ratio that makes sense to me is in the 4 to 1 range. That is a 4 to 1 reduction of the mandatory spending with a dollar increase of revenue.”

Still other Republicans want to use the spending impasse to defund Obamacare or to cut federal funding for Planned Parenthood. Rigell says those aren't realistic ideas because Republicans in Congress need to pass something that can become law.

“It must reflect a principle of compromise. Absent that, it won’t be signed into law by the President. So we need to get it right at the Congressional level so that when it gets to the President, we actually have an agreement that’s going to work and make sense. We owe this to the American people. It’s our fiduciary responsibility to get this done.”

There's another problem: lawmakers aren't feeling the pressure to act like they did in the past. Virginia

Democratic Senator Tim Kaine says he isn’t hearing much from local leaders across the commonwealth.

“There seems to be a sense, well I figured it out last time took them a shutdown to get there nobody is dumb enough to shut down the government again so they’ll figure a way to get there. I hope that’s the case and I'm trying to do what I can to promote it.”  

It may be time for those local officials to start getting on the phone to their representatives in Washington.
 

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