The House of Representatives passed the first bipartisan U.S. budget in four years yesterday, clearingthe way for final Senate passage next week to ease $63 billion inspending cuts and avert another government shutdown.

That doesn't mean lawmakers are excited about it.

The 332-94 vote in the House, where almost equal numbers ofRepublicans and Democrats voted for the plan, masked deepreluctance about the $1.01 trillion budget accord.

“This agreement is better than the alternative, but it misses ahuge opportunity to do what the American people expect us to do,and that is to put this country on a fiscally sustainable path,”said Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 HouseDemocrat.

The budget deal keeps in place about half of the automaticspending reductions known as sequestration in 2014, and aboutthree-quarters of the planned cuts in 2015.

Neither party likes the cuts, which in January are slated toaffect the Pentagon as well as domestic programs favored byDemocrats. Neither party could find a way to erase them all in thisbudget compromise.

The Senate will begin considering the budget deal on Dec. 17with a final vote later in the week, Majority Leader Harry Reid, aNevada Democrat, said today in a floor speech.

House Speaker John Boehner summed up the better-than-nothingopinion of many in Congress by saying simply, “It's progress.”

“It's doing what the American people expect us to do,” which isto “stick to our principles but find common ground,” Boehner, anOhio Republican, said in a speech before the vote.

The compromise budget was crafted by Senator Patty Murray andRepresentative Paul Ryan, the chairman of a special bipartisanpanel. President Barack Obama said he'll sign the finalmeasure.

The agreement's main accomplishments are to relieve $40 billionin cuts in 2014 and about $20 billion in 2015 and cushion themilitary from a $19 billion reduction starting next month. Themeasure includes $23 billion in deficit reduction.

It doesn't raise the U.S. debt ceiling, setting up a potentialfiscal showdown after borrowing authority lapses as soon asFebruary.

“It doesn't go as far as I'd like, but it's a firm step in theright direction,” Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, said in a statementafter the vote.

Spared Doctors

The accord also spared doctors for three months from cuts in theMedicare payment rates set to start in January. The measure doesn'textend emergency benefits for 1.3 million unemployed workers, anomission that frustrated Democrats, who say they plan to continuethe fight when Congress returns in January from a holidaybreak.

Hoyer was among 32 Democrats, including Representatives JohnConyers and Carl Levin of Michigan, Louise Slaughter of New York,and Peter DeFazio of Oregon, who voted against the budgetmeasure.

The budget was opposed by 62 House Republicans, a quarter of thecaucus, including Representatives Michele Bachmann of Minnesota,Michael Burgess of Texas, Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina, SteveKing of Iowa, and Tim Huelskamp of Kansas.

Lawmakers and some economists said adopting a formal budget willprovide some certainty to the U.S. economy after three years ofspending feuds that led to a government shutdown, rattledinvestors, and prompted a downgrade in the nation's creditrating.

Beth Ann Bovino, chief U.S. economist for Standard & Poor'sCorp., said in a recent newsletter that adoption of a bipartisanbudget will be a boon to the U.S. economy.

“The budget would reduce a key risk, political uncertainty,” shewrote. “The private sector will probably be more confident whenplanning investment and spending for next year, which woulddirectly boost growth.”

No Grand Bargain

The deal is far from the $1 trillion to $4 trillion grandbargain on taxes and spending that previous budget negotiatorssought. The plan would set U.S. spending at about $1.01 trillionfor this fiscal year, higher than the $967 billion required in a2011 budget plan.

Much of the deficit reduction will come in later years,according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional BudgetOffice. The plan would lower the deficit by $3.1 billion in 2014and $3.4 billion in 2015 and exceed $20 billion a year in 2022 and2023, the CBO said.

A big portion of the savings is tied to extending the cuts inMedicare provider payments into 2022 and 2023, rather than lettingthem expire in 2021 as under current law.

The accord may help lawmakers repair their image after a 16-daygovernment shutdown in October that caused congressional approvalratings to fall to the lowest level recorded by the GallupOrganization polling group.

It also may give lawmakers breathing room to debate otherinitiatives that have been sidelined as Congress moved from onestopgap spending bill and fiscal crisis to the next.

Some Republicans opposed to the deal say it trades scheduledspending cuts for future promises of austerity that may nevermaterialize and includes tax increases that masquerade as userfees.

Vote Scorecards

Heritage Action for America, a group affiliated with theHeritage Foundation that backs limited government, said it willinclude the budget vote in its scorecard ranking the records ofmembers when they seek re-election.

South Carolina Republican Mick Mulvaney said the legislation“trades spending increases now for promised reductions in thefuture.” Mulvaney, who organized a letter to Boehner calling for abill retaining the cuts, said “past promised spending reductionsjust never seem to pan out.”

Whether yesterday's show of bipartisanship could lead tocooperation on a broader tax-and-spending agreement or is a limitedcompromise of convenience has yet to be determined.

“The big test of that will be when we get to the debt ceiling,whether or not House Republicans again threaten not to pay thebills that are due and owing, and try and use that moment toextract, you know, concessions on their political agenda,”Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the top Democrat onthe House Budget Committee, said in an interview on BloombergTelevision's “Political Capital with Al Hunt” airing thisweekend.

A 2011 budget plan that raised the debt ceiling established thecuts as a hammer—with the threat of equal pain to domestic anddefense programs—to force congressional negotiators to reach a dealon taxes and entitlement spending. After they failed, Congressallowed the first wave of cuts to primarily affect domesticprograms starting last March.

The alternative to a bipartisan deal was for Congress to let$109 billion in scheduled across-the-board spending cuts pinchprograms, including scientific and medical research.

The Pentagon had warned that that an additional $19 billion incuts starting in January could compromise national security.

There are signs that lawmakers remain frustrated by divides.Boehner, an Ohio Republican, lashed out at some groups thattypically ally with Republicans for criticizing the deal and urginglawmakers to vote against it.

“They are misleading their followers,” Boehner said yesterday ata Capitol Hill news conference. “They are pushing our members inplaces they don't want to be. And frankly, I just think they'velost all credibility.”

Federal Pensions

The main components of the deal include raising contributionsthat new federal employees make to their retirement plans andincreasing premiums for pensions backed by the Pension BenefitGuaranty Corp.

One of the largest areas of savings in the next 10 years comesfrom an increase in aviation security fees, which would reduce thedeficit by more than $12 billion.

The deal includes reduced cost-of-living increases forworking-age military retirees.

The budget plan also tightens eligibility criteria for andoverpayments in programs including unemployment insurance,Medicaid, and benefits for federal prisoners.

It eliminates a 2005 natural gas and petroleum resourcesresearch program and caps income paid to federal contractors.

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