When John Boehner handed the Speakership of the House of Representatives over to Paul Ryan in October, he hoped to leave a "clean barn" for his successor. The budget deal he bequeathed to Mr Ryan was an outline, rather than a finished work. It set total spending limits for 2016 and 2017, but left the finicky work of doling out that money until now. In all likelihood, Congress will do this in time for the new year. The Republican leadership has little appetite for a shutdown, which would blot Mr Ryan's nascent Speaker-ship. But as Congress steers away from a shutdown next week, it has lost sight of bigger fiscal problems on the horizon.
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