Budget Deal Seems Out of Reach

Playbook: “Over the last few days, Republican and Democratic aides have come to the conclusion that a budget deal is almost definitely out of reach. Time has run too short. Meetings aren’t getting scheduled anymore. It’s all but over, for the moment.”

“September will turn into a rush to pass a short-term funding bill to avert a shutdown come Sept. 30. The options will probably include a stopgap that funds government at current levels to some point in 2020, or a short-term, three-month deal to allow for Congress to try to strike a larger budget accord that would hike spending beyond 2019 levels. More than $100 billion in cuts take hold in January 2020, and pretty much everyone in Washington wants to avoid that.”

“So it’s totally possible– and even seems likely — that Washington will be thrown into a holiday season crisis as the White House, which considers itself savvy dealmakers, and Congress try to get a large-scale budget deal to head off $100 billion in budget cuts. Because why shouldn’t Congress create a crisis over the holiday season”