Democrat Leaders May Allow US Senate To Vote On Budget Proposals

Today in Washington, D.C. - May 15, 2012
The House is back in session. Expected House votes this week beginning today around 6:30 PM "under suspension" of rules:
HR 205 — Homeless emergency assistance
HR 365 — Blue alerts to reduce violence against law enforcement
H Res 568 — Iran nuclear weapons
HR 1864 — Mobile workforce state income tax
HR 2621 — Chimney Rock Monument
HR 2745 — Multispecies habitat conservation plan for the Virgin River
HR 3534 — Federal construction contractors
HR 3874 — Black Hills Cemetery
HR 4045 — Post-deployment administrative absence days
HR 4119 — Border tunnel prevention
HR 4240 — North Korea human rights

On Wednesday, the House is expected to take under normal procedure consideration of
HR 4310 — Defense authorization and HR 4970 — Violence Against Women Act reauthorization. Potential vote on HR.4970. Debate and potential amendments on HR 4310 expected to run through Thursday and Friday before a final vote on the bill.

The Senate today resumed consideration of the motion to proceed to H.R. 2072, the bill reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank  and began debate on 5 amendments to the bill. The Senate will hold up to 6 roll call votes. The first 5 votes will be on amendments to the Export-Import Bank bill from Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT), Rand Paul (R-KY), Bob Corker (R-TN), David Vitter (R-LA), and Pat Toomey (R-PA), respectively. The Senate will then vote on final passage of H.R. 2072. All amendments will require 60 votes to pass, as will the bill itself.

Senate Democrats initially tried to block all amendments to the bill, but Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell insisted on allowing Republican amendments before the Senate could proceed.

It’s now been over 3 years since the Democrat-controlled Senate passed a budget and during that time Democrats blocked or defeated any budget proposals.  To pass a budget requires a simple majority (51 votes out of 100). Not only has Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said, “There's no need to have a Democratic budget in my opinion. . . . It would be foolish for us to do a budget at this stage,” Democrats have prevented their own Budget Committee Chairman, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND), from even taking one up in committee.

In stark contrast, Senate Republicans will offer several different budget plans this week for senators to vote on. The Hill writes, “Republican senators are expected to force a vote this week on President Obama’s fiscal 2013 budget plan, while Democrats are relishing a roll call on Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) budget blueprint.” In addition, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), and Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) will all offer budgets for the Senate to consider.

But, as The Hill notes, it’s worth pointing out that Democrats don’t want to support their own president’s budget. “The GOP initiative is intended to embarrass the White House by painting the president’s budget as so weak on fiscal issues that his own party cannot support it, and to highlight the inability of the Senate Democratic majority to produce a budget. It has been more than 1,100 days since the Senate cleared a budget resolution. GOP aides say that if Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) tried to rally support for Obama’s budget, he could get a dozen yes votes at best. That estimate may be low, though there is a clear contrast in how congressional Democrats dealt with Obama’s budget in 2009 and this year. Three years ago, the Democratic-led Senate passed Obama’s budget 55-43. Obama’s approval ratings were much higher at the time, which fostered strong Democratic unity on Capitol Hill. Some centrist Democrats, including Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), have said they prefer a budget with deeper deficit cuts than Obama presented. Vulnerable Democratic senators are seen as unwilling to vote for the tax increases detailed in the White House budget. Aides to several Democratic centrists were noncommittal Monday on how their bosses would vote if the Obama budget comes up.”

Last year, of course, Obama’s budget received zero votes in the Senate, and his budget this year received zero votes in the House. Will any Democrat senator vote for it this year? Based on The Hill report, it sounds like Democrats may be getting their excuses ready: “This year, Obama is sticking by his budget, so Democrats are embracing another reason to vote it down. The White House moved Monday to free Democrats to vote no by saying the legislation embodying Obama’s budget is ‘different’ because it doesn’t contain identical policy language.”

This week, no thanks to Democrats, the Senate will finally have the opportunity to vote on at least five different budgets. Will Democrats support any of them, or continue their record of astonishing fiscal irresponsibility?

As Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said last month, “[T]he Chairman of the Budget Committee made it official: for the third year in a row, Senate Democrats will refuse to do the basic work of governance: by refusing to offer a budget blueprint for government spending as required by law. After pledging both to me and his Republican counterpart on the committee that he would, in fact, mark up a budget this year, the chairman of the Budget Committee bowed, once again, to the political pressure and said he won’t put his Democratic colleagues at any political risk by asking them to vote on a plan their constituents might not like. Not until after the election that is. . . .”

“I’m having a hard time thinking of a word to describe the level of leadership we’re getting from Democrats in Washington these days — whether it’s the President or the Democrat Senate. It’s a disgrace. There isn’t a single issue I can think of that they’re willing to do anything about. Under this President’s watch, Washington has been spending more than a trillion dollars a year more than it takes in. And Senate Democrats don’t even have the courage to put it all in black and white. They don’t have any problem spending it. They just don’t want to be on record voting for it. That’s what passes for leadership in Washington these days.”

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