Casey optimistic following Senate agreement to end shutdown
Congress voted Wednesday to avoid a federal default and end a partial government shutdown.
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr., D-Pa., expressed optimism upon the announcement from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that a bipartisan Senate deal to end the federal government shutdown and avoid default had been reached.
Casey told reporters in a phone conference, “We had a pretty dark day yesterday (Tuesday). I’m hopeful that what’s being announced is the first step toward resolving this crisis.”
U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., issued a statement Wednesday that said he favors re-opening government, but not raising the debt limit without reform. Toomey said he is against increasing America’s debt burden because the legislation does nothing whatsoever to address the overspending problem that has caused our debt to mount.
“The one major redeeming aspect of this bill is that it reopens the government,” Toomey said. “I disagreed with the plan to make funding the government contingent on defunding Obamacare and I am glad this bill will get the shutdown behind us. But I cannot support piling hundreds of billions of dollars of debt on current and future generations of Americans without even a sliver of reform to start putting our fiscal house in order.”
In a largely bi-partisan manner, the Senate voted 81-18 by roll call to reopen the government after a 16-day partial shutdown and save the country from a threatened default. There were 52 Democrats, 27 Republicans and two independents who voted yes for the measure. Zero Democrats and 18 Republicans voted no.
The Republican-dominated House of Representatives passed the legislation by a 285-144 vote well before midnight, the deadline after which the U.S. Treasury would experience its first-ever default.
Casey said the Senate agreement, which he supported, works toward achieving three important goals: opening the government, making sure there are provisions in place to avoid a default, and setting up procedures to continue to negotiate.
According to the agreement, the government will be funded through Jan. 15, and the default would be averted at least through Feb. 7. During that time, a budget conference committee will convene to produce a negotiated budget resolution in December, and hopefully put measures in place to prevent similar budget crises in the future.
Casey said the continuing resolution as drafted by the Senate would be in effect through the holiday season, an important time for consumer confidence and the national economy.
“All of that is positive,” he said, “but obviously we’d like to have a longer agreement.”
Casey said the agreement moves Congress back toward the right path of working for economic expansion and stability in the middle class.
Joined by Casey in the phone conference was Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics. Zandi called the coming together of lawmakers encouraging, but pointed out that “the damage is already mounting.”
“(The shutdown) is already impacting investors, consumers and business confidence,” Zandi said.
Zandi also expressed concern that the “ongoing battles” and “brinkmanship” seen over the last few years are damaging confidence as well.
“It’s corrosive on the economy,” said Zandi. “In my mind, increasingly, (the reason) why the economy is not accelerating is largely created by uncertainty going on in Washington.”
Zandi did offer hope moving forward.
“If policymakers can reasonably get it together, I’m very optimistic that the private economy is going to take off,” he said. “The fundamentals of the private economy are excellent. As soon as Washington uncertainty clears, the private economy will shine through.”
Although some damage already has been done, Casey said the agreement moves Congress back toward the right path of working for economic expansion and stability in the middle class.
“We have to get back to the basic work that people expect us to do,” Casey said.
A representative from the office of U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Hollidaysburg, said he declined to comment on the Senate agreement until the House vote takes place.
That took place approximately two hours after the Senate’s vote.