Delaware’s junior senator Chris Coons is cautiously optimistic about a two-year budget deal Congress appears prepared to pass this week.
The deal would take the debt ceiling debate off the table until March 2017. It would also add about $80 billion in spending split between military and domestic programs, while offsetting that spending with cuts and new revenue elsewhere.
Coons, who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee, says the deal sends a positive message.
“I think this is a significant lift to our economy and helping the people of the United States see that it is still possible for Democrats and Republicans, House and Senate to work together," Coons said in an interview with Delaware Public Media Wednesday. "After five years of manufactured crises, needless fiscal cliffs, pointless government shutdowns, I am encouraged that the President and the Republican leadership of the Congress have been able to cobble together both a two year debt ceiling extension and more that 80 million dollars in sequester relief,”
Coons adds it’s unlikely the deal would have gotten done without the impending departure of House Speaker John Boehner.
"I think Speaker Boehner is the sort of sacrificial lamb to the Freedom Caucus and the Tea Party in the House," said Coons. "The end of his speakership makes it possible for him to bring to the floor a debt ceiling raise that will pass with a majority of Democrats."
The House and Senate Appropriations Committees will determine exactly where that $80 billion will be used – and need to do so by mid-December to avert at government shutdown. Coons, who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee, says he expects a tough debate, but is optimistic.
“I choose to be hopeful given the positive atmosphere that’s been created by the movement here on the debt ceiling. And I choose to be optimistic given the number of bipartisan bills that we have been working on with Republicans in the last few months," said Coons. "But there’s still the devil in the details.”
As those details are hammered out, Coons says he and other Democrats will seek to invest more in medical research, transportation and infrastructure, higher education and some areas of defense. But he says there's also concern that Republican policy riders seeking to repeal Dodd-Frank consumer protections or defund Planned Parenthood could derail the process.
Coons also lauds portions of the deal that prevent some averting Medicare part B premium increases next year and a looming 20 percent across-the-board cut to social security disability insurance benefits.
