The Republicans wanted to cut $4 billion from the budget in any deal they made to keep the government open for two more weeks. The Democrats wanted a longer extension without cuts. The compromise is that $4 billion will be cut and the extension will be for only two weeks, but the cuts will come entirely from line items that the Obama administration has already identified and approved for elimination.
This pushes back the new potential government shutdown date to March 18th. The upside is that programs that the Democrats value were protected, but the downside is that the Dems now have that much less to give away in the next negotiation.
One significant part of the cuts comes from a $2.7 billion reduction in earmarks. The deal allows both sides to claim a victory of sorts, which is the basis for a decent compromise, but it doesn’t solve anything. In two weeks, we’ll probably be right back where we started, trying to pass another two week extension.