Senate Democrats have avoided passing a budget for three straight
years as of today. What's more, Democratic senators are surprisingly
open in admitting they won't pass one this year, either, in order to
avoid an embarrassing vote before this fall's election.
"This is the wrong time to vote in committee; this is the wrong time to vote on the floor," Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D. said on April 18th. "I don’t think we will be prepared to vote before the election." In a sense, it was indeed the wrong time. Senate Democrats had already missed the legal deadline for submitting a budget resolution (April 15th) as they had in the two previous years.
"For three years, in the midst of fiscal crisis, the party running the Senate refused to even attempt to produce their financial plan in willful and knowing defiance of the law," Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said in a statement on this three-year anniversary of the last Senate budget.
He added that "neither [Obama] nor his Senate majority has any business asking the American people to send one more dime in new taxes to this dysfunctional government."
Democrats have offered a variety of excuses for the lack of the budget. White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew, for instance, blamed Republicans for the lack of a Senate budget.
"You can't pass a budget in the Senate of the United States without 60 votes, and you can't get 60 votes without bipartisan support," he said on CNN in February. "So unless Republicans are willing to work with Democrats in the Senate, Harry Reid is not going to be able to get a budget passed."
Read more: http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/38976000-cant-buy-budget-senate-dems/509026
"This is the wrong time to vote in committee; this is the wrong time to vote on the floor," Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D. said on April 18th. "I don’t think we will be prepared to vote before the election." In a sense, it was indeed the wrong time. Senate Democrats had already missed the legal deadline for submitting a budget resolution (April 15th) as they had in the two previous years.
"For three years, in the midst of fiscal crisis, the party running the Senate refused to even attempt to produce their financial plan in willful and knowing defiance of the law," Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said in a statement on this three-year anniversary of the last Senate budget.
He added that "neither [Obama] nor his Senate majority has any business asking the American people to send one more dime in new taxes to this dysfunctional government."
Democrats have offered a variety of excuses for the lack of the budget. White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew, for instance, blamed Republicans for the lack of a Senate budget.
"You can't pass a budget in the Senate of the United States without 60 votes, and you can't get 60 votes without bipartisan support," he said on CNN in February. "So unless Republicans are willing to work with Democrats in the Senate, Harry Reid is not going to be able to get a budget passed."
Read more: http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/38976000-cant-buy-budget-senate-dems/509026
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