Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward has a theory for why Republicans and Democrats in the Congress were able to agree on a budget: President Barack Obama was far away from the negotiating table.
“I think this deal worked, quite frankly — let’s go right to the center of this — because Obama was not part of the negotiations,” Woodward said on Fox News Sunday. “He is not a good negotiator.”
Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan and Washington Democrat Sen. Patty Murray announced a bipartisan budget deal on Tuesday evening to prevent another government shutdown.
The deal has outraged some conservatives: While the across-the-board spending cuts to government agencies in the Budget Control Act capped 2014 spending levels at $967 billion, the Ryan-Murray deal raises that spending level to $1.012 trillion with the promise of new cuts to government spending over time.
The deal passed the House last week and is expected to come up for a vote this week in the Senate.