Vox Sentences: The budget deal is bad for farmers and good for Paul Ryan

Paul Ryan bites the hand that feeds him; a new strategy for the war on ISIS; and Guatemala elects a sketch comedian president.

Vox Sentences is written by Dylan Matthews and Dara Lind.

TOP NEWS

What's in this budget deal, anyway?

(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

• Obama and Congress have reached the last budget deal of his presidency, ensuring the government is funded and the debt ceiling is raised until March 2017.

  [Vox / Dylan Matthews]

• It's going to need Democratic votes to pass the House, because much of the House Freedom Caucus plans to vote against it. But it doesn't look like Republicans will oppose it so overwhelmingly that it will actually fail.

  [Politico / Lauren French]

• The deal guarantees that the sequester will endure (even though many of its automatic cuts are eased). Brian Beutler argues this is a defeat for Democrats.

  [The New Republic / Brian Beutler]

• But in its substance, the bill appears to be much better for liberals than it could have been — as demonstrated by this exhaustive review and endorsement from the left-leaning think tank the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

  [Center for Budget and Policy Priorities / Robert Greenstein]

• Farmers are less pleased. The bill cuts $9 billion over 10 years in subsidies to companies that sell crop insurance. It's a sign that government handouts for farmers are no longer politically untouchable.

  [AP / Mary Clare Jalonick and Matthew Daly]

• The plan will sell off oil reserves during a time of low oil prices, which sounds nuts on the surface, but Matt Yglesias argues the downsides are overblown.

  [Vox / Matt Yglesias]

• The deal's biggest political beneficiary is Paul Ryan, who won't have to negotiate any spending deals with Obama as speaker. Needless to say, to retain his conservative cred, Paul Ryan is badmouthing the deal, saying the process "stinks" and should have involved the House GOP from the beginning.

  [Politico / Jake Sherman]

The US already has boots on the ground to fight ISIS. It's where they're going that's changed.

(Alex Wong/Getty Images)

• During an oversight hearing today, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said the US is changing its strategy against ISIS to emphasize "direct action on the ground."

  [NBC News / Jim Miklaszewski and Courtney Kube]

• This shouldn't be confused with "boots on the ground," which the US had already — as a recent hostage rescue mission that killed an American service member made fully apparent.

  [CBS News / Elizabeth Palmer]

• Rather, it means the US will be focusing on taking the city of Raqqa (ISIS's de facto capital), retaking the Iraqi city of Ramadi, and kinetic "raids." Vox's Zack Beauchamp explains those "three R's."

  [Vox / Zack Beauchamp]

• The shift shows the US is acknowledging some of the realities on the ground. The focus on Ramadi, for instance, is something the Iraqi government had been pushing for months — and the US long resisted in favor of focusing on the city of Mosul.

  [New York Times / Michael R. Gordon]

• On the other hand, the US is still making vague references to partnering with a "Syrian Arab Coalition" that no one on the ground knows anything about.

  [Vox / Zack Beauchamp]

• (Meanwhile, libertarian-leaning Republican Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) is pissed that the president isn't seeking congressional approval to shift gears.)

  [Justin Amash via Twitter]

Al Franken, but for Guatemala

(Rodrigo Arangua/AFP/Getty Images)

• Guatemalans have responded to their government's corruption crisis by electing a comedian who's never been involved in politics before as their next president.

  [Vox / Zack Beauchamp]

• New President Jimmy Morales was the star of a sketch-style comedy show: He's been compared to Stephen Colbert, but his format is more like The Kroll Show (albeit with lots and lots of homophobia and blackface).

  [The Guardian / Nina Lakhani]

• As a politician, he describes himself as a "centrist" — but his platform is, as Ben Radersdorf and Haley Florsheim put it, "essentially devoid of issues."

  [The Dialogue / Ben Radersdorf and Haley Florsheim]

• Nevertheless, his motto of "not corrupt, not a thief" made him the "least worst option" (as one voter said) for Guatemala right now.

  [New York Times / Elisabeth Malkin and Nic Wirtz]

• It wouldn't be fair to say that the entire outgoing government of Otto Pérez Molina was corrupt. But plenty of them have been caught up in a scandal called "La Linea," in which government officials cheated on import fees — including Pérez Molina himself.

  [Vox / Amanda Taub]

• Pérez Molina resigned last month and is now in jail awaiting trial. He blames Joe Biden(!) for getting him into this mess by making him take an anti-corruption pledge.

  [Reuters / Sofia Menchu and Enrique Pretel]

MISCELLANEOUS

Bernie Sanders doesn't have a lot of backers on Wall Street — but he has some. Here's why they're feeling the Bern. [Politico / Ben Schreckinger]

• As other candidates flail, some pundits are floating Ted Cruz as a 2016 contender who could unite party elites and the base. Don't believe it.

  [Texas Observer / Christopher Hooks]

• If you're trying to write an exposé on how a school's suspension policies are too punitive, don't choose a kid who repeatedly beat up teachers and fellow students as your poster child.

  [Washington Post / Erik Wemple]

• The Congressional Research Service produces thorough, extremely useful reports on everything from military procurement to Senate procedure. So why aren't they made public?

  [R Street / Kevin Kosar]

• These photos of cats mid-shake are weirdly … disturbing.

  [Colossal / Christopher Jobson]

VERBATIM

"Believe it or not, US academics are probably the most open to the idea of accessible language. I gave a presentation in France and academics there flat out told me that academics shouldn’t write to express, they should write to impress." [Deborah Bosley to the Atlantic / Victoria Clayton]

• "Kind of a good ending to the season when you can have a lot of people come out and enjoy watching a pumpkin smash a van I guess."

  [Charlie Bernstrom to Grank Forks Herald / Matt Henson]

• "I wanted to send you a quick, private note about Carly Fiorina. Though she maintains an active campaign calendar, she has limited availability for speaking engagements."

  [Leading Authorities Inc. via WSJ / Reid Epstein]

• "Wonderful plays are out there, plenty of them. But most people talk about them poorly, as if they were apps."

  [HowlRound / Alexander Borinsky]

• "Being a grandparent is fun. It is also a way in which I am similar to others. This is a fun topic through which I can connect with many people. My grandchild’s name is as follows: Charlotte."

  [The Onion / Hillary Clinton]

WATCH THIS

ISIS is losing. Watch how and why it's happening. [YouTube / Johnny Harris and Zack Beauchamp]

(Vox/Johnny Harris)

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