Previewing the competing budget votes coming up in the Senate, Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said on the floor today, “Sometime today or tomorrow, Senate Democrats will have an opportunity to show what kind of future they believe in. They can vote for one of the Republican plans to get our nation’s finances under control, each of which involves the kind of tough choices we’ll need to make to bring down our deficits and debt. Or, they can vote on the President’s plan, which continues the unsustainable status quo.”
He pointed out, “It’s interesting: When the President first announced his budget, most people panned it as tepid and irresponsible. The Washington Post summed it up pretty well by saying the President punted. Yet Senate Democrats embraced it.” Indeed, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), a key member of Democrat leadership, said “This is a responsible proposal… I believe this approach should have bipartisan support.” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) called it “a responsible framework” and Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) said, “I personally think that the President’s budget is a step in the right direction.” Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) said, “President Obama has given us a credible blueprint . . .” and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) claimed, “The President’s budget . . . strengthens our economy . . . .”
Despite this, Leader McConnell pointed out, “[I]f we’re to believe the news reports, every single Democrat in the Senate now plans to vote against the President’s budget. They don’t even want to use it as a starting point. Why?” He explained, “We got the answer earlier this week from Senator Schumer, when he indicated that Democrats now believe avoiding this debate altogether helps them in the next election. In other words, they think it’s better not to keep track of our nation’s finances at all than to support any plan that does. So much so that they’re about to reject a budget that even they embraced a few months ago. They’ll vote against every budget that comes to the floor — including the President’s.”
The Washington Times elaborates in an editorial today, “For the second year in a row, [Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid has failed to produce a Senate budget. . . . As many as four different budgets could be considered this week: [House Budget Committee Chairman Paul] Ryan’s; conservative plans from Sen. Patrick J. Toomey, Pennsylvania Republican, and Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican; and President Obama’s 2012 budget. The Democratic majority is expected to vote down all of them, including the White House proposal. Sen. Charles E. Schumer revealed to reporters that the true agenda was getting a vote on Mr. Ryan’s budget for use in political commercials. ‘To put other budgets out there is not the point,’ the New York Democrat explained. The point is to ‘say the Republicans tried to end Medicare but a Democratic majority stopped it in the Senate.’”
As Senate Republican Policy Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) told reporters yesterday, “I think the really ironic thing this week of all these budget votes is we’re not going to be voting on a Senate budget. We’re going to be voting on a House budget, the president’s budget, and some other budgets, but the Senate has yet to put together a budget. It’s now been 755 days — 755 days since the Democrats in the Senate have produced a budget. . . . We borrow over 40 cents out of every dollar that we spend in this country. Last week, the Medicare trustees reported a $46 billion cash deficit in Medicare, a $32 billion cash deficit in Social Security, according to the Social Security trustees report. And so you have this major budget crisis and no attempt, at least on the part of the majority, to address it, other than to try and score political points and gain some sort of an electoral advantage going into 2012.”
Leader McConnell summed up the contrasting approaches today: “Democrats are ready to call it a work period without supporting any of the proposals that have been made. Without producing anything of their own. Nothing: that’s their answer to this crisis. Their focus is on an election that’s still almost two years away. . . . Congressman Ryan has shown courage by proposing a budget that would tackle these problems. Democrats are showing none by ignoring our problems altogether. This is the contrast Americans will see in the Senate this week. . . . This is a complete and total abdication of their responsibilities. And there is no excuse for it.”
Senate News Briefing
Article written by: Tom White
About Tom White
Tom is a US Navy Veteran, owns an Insurance Agency and is currently an IT Manager for a Virginia Distributor. He has been published in American Thinker, currently writes for the Richmond Examiner as well as Virginia Right! Blog. Tom lives in Hanover County, Va and is involved in politics at every level and is a Recovering Republican who has finally had enough of the War on Conservatives in progress with the Leadership of the GOP on a National Level.
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