It's happening—House Speaker John Boehner is flipping fiscal hawks in his own party the bird. On Thursday, Boehner expressed interest in a budget deal that would avoid a return to sequestration budget caps in October.
Rebecca Shabad reports:
“If there's a way to reduce mandatory spending in a way that would provide relief to the sequester, like we did with the Ryan-Murray budget plan, have at it,” Boehner told reporters at his weekly press conference, referring to the agreement Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) struck in late 2013 that relieved sequestration ceilings for fiscal 2014 and 2015.
This is a pretty big indication that GOP defense hawks are winning the battle over GOP fiscal hawks in the Republican caucus. The defense hawks
want more money for Defense spending (i.e. war). It's also an indication that Boehner has had it with the unruly cadre of Republicans who prioritize spending cuts over all else. They were never fans of the Ryan-Murray compromise.
If there's a silver lining to more Defense spending and hence a bigger budget, it's that Democrats might also get a little more room to maneuver on their own spending priorities.