John Boehner (right) carefully confined his first demands to the least painful cuts. 2-week measure postpones shutdown

Threats of a government shutdown next week had all but disappeared by late Friday as Democrats reacted favorably to a Republican plan that would keep agencies operating past Mar. 4 while making a first down payment toward a larger budget deal.

The two-week peace is only temporary but gives House and Senate leaders through Mar 18 to try to resolve conservative demands for more than $60 billion in spending cuts, all concentrated in the second half of this fiscal year.


A first installment of $4 billion in savings would be part of the deal now and Republicans have said they will insist on $2 billion more in cuts for each additional week the talks continue past the new deadline. The novel approach is one devised by Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), trying to keep pace with his large freshman class while avoiding the same sort of shutdown that so hurt Republicans in the 1990’s when they confronted then President Bill Clinton.

Senate Democrats bitterly resent Boehner’s approach, saying he is holding the government hostage, nibbling away with weekly ransom demands to placate his tea party supporters. But the speaker carefully confined his first demands to the least painful cuts, and in an amusing turnabout, Democrats rushed to take credit for an idea they had seemed ready to go to war over days before.

“The plan Republicans are floating today sounds like a modified version of what Democrats were talking about,” said a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). “We’re glad they think it’s a good idea.”

About $2.7 billion of the proposed savings would come from rescinding unspent funds, such as water projects and local economic initiatives, earmarked by past Congresses. The remaining third, or $1.24 billion, is attributed to eight terminations, impacting broadband loan subsidies and various smaller education programs, as well as $650 million from a general spending account financed through the highway trust fund.

Many of the reductions are lifted from Obama’s own budget proposals, making it harder for Democrats to protest. And in conference calls this week, Republican leaders have tried to school their freshmen to keep faith with this first step and not bolt suddenly to force a shutdown.

The 19-page resolution, introduced late Friday, is slated to come to the House floor as early as next Tuesday and the goal will be to complete action in Congress prior to the funding cutoff slated Mar. 4.

“There is now a clear path to finishing this short-term measure before the Mar. 4th deadline,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. And working with Boehner, the Kentucky Republican is well positioned to block any attempt by Reid to do other than the House bill.

Democrats concede as much but hope the extra two weeks will also see Obama come off the sidelines and involve himself more in the fight. “Without him, we will lose, bit by bit,” said one Senate aide.

Certainly the administration has a major stake in the outcome. As approved by the House last Saturday morning, the $60 billion package of cuts would severely cripple much of the president’s agenda at home and abroad. Indeed, the total reductions are twice what Boehner himself had once envisioned, and Senate Republicans are themselves concerned by a proposed $10 billion-plus cut in foreign aid.

Caught in the middle too is the Pentagon, and thus far Republicans have not chosen to break out defense spending and move a separate budget bill for the military.

This has been a running concern for Democrats because in 1995 Republicans pushed through the defense budget shortly before forcing what became a 21 day shutdown impacting the rest of the government.

At the time, Clinton allowed the Pentagon bill to become law though it hurt him tactically during the shutdown weeks later. And many Senate Democrats would argue now that they must insist that any future stop gap spending bill also include the Pentagon to make it harder for conservatives to accept a shutdown.

It is dicey political question under normal times, let alone with the military strained by two overseas wars. While exemptions will likely allow continued military operations, 2011 overseas contingency funds for troops in Afghanistan and Iraq are also part of the same continuing resolution due to expire next week.