United States

Budget compromise

That polarization remained at the fore as the new Republican majority in the House locked heads with the Democratic-controlled Senate and the Obama administration over the federal budget for fiscal year 2011. Unable to agree on that budget, the previous Congress, in October 2010, had passed the first in a series of stopgap measures to keep the federal government operating until agreement could be reached on a long-term budget. Both Republicans and Democrats believed that reductions to the budget were necessary in response to the federal government’s soaring deficit; however, they disagreed vehemently on the extent, targets, and timing of budget cuts. House Republicans upped the political ante when they announced that they would not vote for another temporary budget and demanded deep reductions. The threat of a shutdown of all but essential services of the federal government came within a few hours of being realized, but on April 8, 2011, an agreement was reached that resulted in passage a week later by both the House (260–167) and the Senate (81–19) of a compromise budget for the remainder of the fiscal year that cut $38 billion in federal spending. Neither side was completely satisfied, and a large number of Republicans, many of whom had come into office as part of the wave of Tea Party opposition to big government, chose not to vote with the majority of their party in support of the compromise. Democrats and Republicans were also engaged in dramatic ideological battle on the state level, perhaps most notably in Wisconsin and Indiana, where collective bargaining for state employees and the role of unions were at issue.