Getty Budget deal will be 'piñata' during GOP debate The GOP presidential candidates are expected to attack it from every direction.

The bipartisan congressional budget deal will be an easy target for the GOP presidential field during Wednesday’s prime-time debate. And GOP leaders are bracing for their carefully crafted work to be treated like a punching bag.

Top Republicans fully expect the accord to spur a new round of attacks on Washington’s leaders during the Colorado debate, the same day that the House GOP is expected to endorse Paul Ryan for speaker. But they’re ready and willing to take the abuse, reasoning that a night of public flogging before tens of millions of viewers beats a fiscal catastrophe.


And maybe it even gives some cover to the very candidates who are going to trash the agreement.

“If you’re running as an outsider, which most of them are, they are just going to attack whatever we are doing here,” said Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 3 Senate Republican. “Anybody who’s running as an elected member of Congress today in a presidential campaign … is a liability.”

Asked how he expects the compromise will be treated by the field of 10 Republican hopefuls, which includes three GOP senators, in the debate’s main event, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) paused, smiled and replied: “Oh … like a piñata.”

Sens. Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul haven’t shown up for any of the briefings on the breakthrough deal, which would remove the threat of government shutdowns and a debt default past the election and into 2017. Indeed, all three GOP contenders have taken great pains this week to avoid any connection with the budget, and all said Tuesday they will oppose it and were already criticizing it publicly.

On Tuesday, Cruz gave Republicans a taste of what to expect in Boulder, accusing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner of a “surrender” to President Barack Obama.

“No one in Congress who campaigned on stopping President Obama’s runaway spending and debt should vote to advance or pass this golden parachute that gives Obama and Boehner nearly everything they want,” Cruz said Tuesday afternoon.

Paul and Rubio were only slightly more charitable toward a budget deal that increases spending by about $80 billion while offsetting those increases with cuts to entitlement programs and other revenue raisers. Defense hawks hoped Rubio will vote for the package because it boosts the defense budget, but Rubio criticized the “severely flawed” compromise for shorting the military. And in Colorado Tuesday evening, Paul threatened to filibuster the bill and said it was hard to describe it without using profanity, according to NBC.

“There’s no way our presidentials will vote for this,” said one senior Republican aide.

Indeed, not one of them was even in the room on Monday night to offer input when McConnell took the temperature of his caucus or on Tuesday when GOP senators chewed over the agreement during a party lunch.

“It is disappointing if those who were unable to be here because they are running for president are critical of the plan without taking the time to be here and listen to the debate and the details,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a Jeb Bush supporter. “It’s a credit to Sen. [Lindsey] Graham that he is here because he has the same pressures on him as the others.”

Indeed, the blunt-talking South Carolina Republican is the only GOP presidential hopeful who seems inclined to support the deal. The long-shot defense hawk flew back to Washington this week, in part for a budget briefing from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). He implicitly tut-tutted his rivals for skipping out on this week’s Senate work ahead of the debate and bragged about how much there was to learn ahead of the event.

“I wanted to be here for two reasons. I wanted to make sure I talked to Sen. McCain … and I wanted to be at this Syria hearing, this hearing about the Mideast. What I learned today is chilling,” Graham said. “I learned a lot.”

But Graham won’t be on the main stage, and though he may offer a spirited defense in the undercard, it won’t be in the face of Cruz and Paul, whose views on national defense motivated Graham to launch his presidential campaign in the first place. And more broadly, the expectation on Capitol Hill is that every presidential candidate is going to blast the deal, if not for the secretive process that clinched the accord, then for the policies contained in it.

“The candidates have not shown any signs of moderation. And this budget is a rather moderate deal,” smirked Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York.

The deal actually will be good news for the eventual GOP nominee, taking presidential year shutdown and default threats off the table. And it also offers some measure of protection for Ryan from criticism, both within the House and among the presidential field. Presuming the package becomes law, the new speaker won’t have to deal with the risk of a catastrophic debt default right out the gate. Instead, much like the Republican Party as a whole, Ryan can focus on uniting his conference behind an agenda after years of infighting over deficits, the budget and debt.

To hear veteran senators tell it, the nature of bipartisan deals hasn’t changed but the Republican primary process has. McCain, the party’s nominee just seven years ago, insisted he would have voted for such an agreement, even in the throes of a presidential campaign.

“Those were different times. I would have supported it,” McCain said. “There’s this anger out there: ‘Be against the establishment.’ There wasn’t that in 2008.”

Indeed, even Republican senators up for reelection in 2016 in Democratic-leaning states are wary of praising a budget deal aimed at securing some fiscal stability through the election, in part to help protect vulnerable incumbents.

Instead, the budget deal is getting a chilly reception.

“I’m concerned about it. Because I believe when you raise the debt limit, you need to deal with the underlying problem,” said Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio).

Asked whether there were process issues, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) replied: “Ya think?”

“Rush rush, jam it down everybody’s throat,” he said. “I’m not real happy with it.”

Few are. But Republicans leaders and centrist-leaning lawmakers like Graham and McCain argue it’s superior to what they were expecting absent a deal: a clean debt ceiling lift and a continuing resolution that constrained spending but hamstrung military leaders.

The message from leaders is: We feel your pain, but consider the alternative.

“This was held so close to the vest and there wasn’t a lot of consultation with the committees and chairmen. I understand there’s been people complaining, with justification,” Cornyn said. “But this is Speaker Boehner’s last hurrah, along with the White House.”

That explanation might be enough to push the deal through the House and Senate. But that argument will do little to convince the presidential field on Wednesday. And congressional critics of the agreement are hoping the GOP candidates give the budget deal a thorough throttling; it’s good politics for Republicans, they say, and an important moment to educate voters.

“It’s a stand-up moment. Can a candidate to be the next president of the United States stand before the American people and say the Budget Control Act … should be violated and we spent $40 billion?” said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) of the deal. A candidate would “be hard-pressed to say yes to that question if he wanted to be taken seriously.”

