House Republicans Pass 2012 Budget Bill - Democrats Can't Agree On Approach To Debt Limit

House Budget Comm. Chair Paul Ryan
and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor
by Brendan Hoffman - The Washington Post

Today in Washington, D.C. - April 15, 2011:
Today, The Washington Post: the House passed a Republican budget plan proposed by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) that would cut trillions of dollars in spending and fundamentally change federal entitlement programs. The measure passed on a party-line 235-to-193 vote, with all but four Republicans in support and all Democrats opposed.

The Senate had already adjourned for Easter recess and senators and representatives will be traveling around their states or districts until they return on May 2nd.

Yesterday, ARRA News Service reported in an update that the House passed 260-167 the H.R. 1473 that will keep the government running through September. It cuts $38.5 billion in federal spending and has been sent to the Senate. The Senate then passed 81-19 H.R. 1473. Prior to that vote, all 53 Senate Democrats voted down a resolution, H. Con. Res. 35, which would have defunded the unpopular health care law (aka Obamacare). The Senate then voted 42-58 to reject H. Con. Res. 36, which would have prohibited federal funding of Planned Parenthood. H.R. 1473, H. Con. Res. 35, and H. Con. Res. 36 all required 60 votes for passage.

As Congress begins to focus on the next major fiscal issue, whether to raise the nation’s debt limit, Democrats can’t seem to agree on how to approach the issue, even as they fall all over themselves to explain why they think it’s vital to raise the limit now but eagerly voted against doing so a few years ago.

In their efforts to stress how important they think raising the debt limit is, Democrat leaders are scrambling to explain away their past votes against raising it, or outright saying it was a “mistake.” Yesterday, President Obama sat down with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos and told him that in 2006 when he voted against raising the debt limit, it was “political.” Obama said, “[T]hat was just a example of a new Senator, you know, making what is a political vote as opposed to doing what was important for the country.  And I’m the first one to acknowledge it.” Earlier in the day, Harry Reid was explaining his own previous “political” position on the debt limit. In an interview with ABC’s Jonathan Karl, Reid said, “I shouldn’t have done that. I’m kinda embarrassed I did. It was a political maneuver by we Democrats. The Republicans were in power – there were more of them. . . . The president voted when he was in the Senate the same way. I heard him apologize for it.” And The Washington Post reported, “House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer said Tuesday that his previous votes against raising the country’s debt limit were ‘a mistake.’ The Maryland Democrat urged Republicans not to ‘hold hostage the full faith and credit of the United States’ by refusing to support raising the debt ceiling unless it is accompanied by a plan to reduce the national deficit. ‘Let me be the first to observe that I have voted against the debt limit in the past. That was a mistake,’ Hoyer said at his weekly roundtable with reporters.”

Yet now that Democrats are saying that it’s important for the country that Congress raise the debt ceiling, they seem to expect that be done without any sort of accompanying efforts to rein in America’s staggering debt. On Monday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said, “[W]e believe that we should move quickly to raise the debt limit and we support a clean piece of legislation to do that.” And yesterday, Politico reported, “Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Thursday he wants a clean vote to raise the debt ceiling.” Reid said, “We don’t have to attach anything. It’s a debate. We can do it separate to that.”

Of course, Republicans have been saying for weeks that something significant needs to be done about debt and spending in connection with consideration of the debt ceiling. But now many Democrats are saying something similar. On Wednesday, Politico wrote, “A number of Senate Democrats are wary of the White House's call to keep the debt-limit vote free of conditions, including those worried that the vote will be a political albatross in their 2012 election bids . . . .” Last month, The Hill reported, “Freshman Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) will not vote to raise the debt ceiling this spring unless it's tied to a long-term deficit reduction plan, he'll say Monday in a speech.” Manchin said, “We must get our fiscal house in order. We must be honest about what we value and what we need to spend your taxpayer dollars on — not what just sounds good. . . . That is why I will vote against raising the debt ceiling unless the vote is linked to a real budget plan that begins to fix our fiscal mess.” Sen. Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) told The Washington Post this week, “It’s not just Republicans. A lot of Democrats, including myself, are not going to vote to raise the national debt ceiling unless there is something concrete, real, tough done to guarantee that the debt itself will be reduced in the coming years.” And according to Politico, “‘Now it’s time to have that vote tied in with getting some progress on the long-term debt for the country,’ said Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who initially held out her vote in 2010 to increase the debt ceiling until Obama agreed to create a bipartisan fiscal commission.”

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