The talking point is on the tip of virtually every Republican’s tongue in the Capitol: Democrats have failed to pass a budget resolution in the Senate for more than 1,400 days.
Sen. Patty Murray is trying to end that, but it hasn’t been easy. Heading into a decisive week of private meetings with fellow Democrats, the new Budget Committee chairwoman is trying to thread the needle between red-state senators who want deeper spending cuts and liberals worried about cutting too much into entitlement programs like Medicare. The Washington Democrat also has enlisted a team of aides to defend her plan while attacking the GOP proposal coming from Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).
Murray’s plan is still being developed, but it could be split 50-50 between spending cuts and new taxes, with some Democratic senators on the panel pushing for tax increases upward of $1 trillion, according to people familiar with the matter.
It is also widely expected to include fast-track procedures to overhaul the Tax Code despite resistance from the powerful Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who has privately expressed strong objections to such an approach.
Republican leaders are eager to unload an avalanche of politically toxic amendments to sink the effort, meaning Democrats need to remain largely united if they are to pass the budget out of the chamber later this month.
And if the 113th Congress is to get a handle on the growing national debt that’s north of $16 trillion, it could fall on the shoulders of Murray and Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, to iron out a compromise between their competing proposals. Such an accord could presumably pave the way for a grand bargain deal that has eluded Capitol Hill for years.
The Ryan budget is expected to call for lower taxes and deeper cuts in Medicare and other domestic programs, while balancing the budget in a decade — a far more aggressive timeline than the Democrats will lay out, leading Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to say it will be challenging to find bipartisan consensus.
“I think it would be extremely difficult,” Reid said in an interview when asked about the prospects of an agreement between the House and Senate. “I think [Ryan’s] budget is so out of the course of what America needs, for me, it’s hardly worth talking about.”
Murray — who Reid has increasingly leaned on to resolve tough political issues — is moving quickly to iron out differences between Democrats on the Budget Committee before the panel votes on the measure as soon as next week.
She will hold a series of closed-door meetings with the 11 Democrats on the panel — a diverse group that is representative of the 55-member Democratic Caucus. She’ll have to win over the likes of liberal senators, such as Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, and moderates such as Mark Warner of Virginia and Senate newcomers like Angus King of Maine, the independent who has positioned himself as a centrist.
If the panel adopts the proposal on a party-line vote, it could hit the floor as early as the week of March 18, opening up the plan to a nonstop voting session of amendments known in the Capitol as the “vote-a-rama.”
“What we are working toward is responsible deficit reduction that takes into account that the economy is fragile today,” Murray said. “We need to talk about not just deficit reduction, … but we want to make sure that we create jobs and a stronger economy in the future.”
Before moving the bill, Murray still must resolve how to split the plan between tax increases and spending cuts. One of the main issues is whether to count the $2.5 trillion in spending cuts already taking effect over the next decade, something liberals on the committee are hoping is accounted for as they push for higher taxes in the budget blueprint.
Whitehouse said the debt should be lowered and stabilized, but he cautioned, “We don’t need to get rid of the debt entirely.”
“We want to have reflected in the budget the fact that in the balance between spending cuts and new revenues, spending cuts are already winning by $1 trillion,” Whitehouse said. “That has to be reflected.”
But if Murray goes that route, the plan’s call for tax increases could be greater than its call for new spending cuts, which could make it harder for moderate Democrats to swallow.
“I know when I speak for a number of moderates in our caucus that we are very aware that we have a responsibility to continue to shrink the size and scope of our government,” Sen. Claire McCaksill (D-Mo.) said when asked about the budget plan.
Added Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor, an at-risk Democrat in 2014: “We have to do tax reform. … We have to cut our discretionary spending. … We have to do entitlement reform.”
In order to do tax reform, Murray is seriously considering adding language that would call on congressional tax-writing committees to draft legislation that would raise revenue through a sweeping reform of the Tax Code. Ryan is unlikely to go that route, but he’s expected to include fast-track instructions calling for the congressional panels to draft legislation to overhaul entitlement programs.
Such fast-track provisions, known on the Hill as reconciliation legislation, would circumvent a filibuster if a bicameral budget resolution is adopted by both the House and the Senate.
But Baucus has scoffed at that approach, fearing it would tie his hands given the more constrictive parameters of overhauling the Tax Code through the budget process. Baucus said Monday such an approach is “too restrictive” and could lead to tax policy expiring in a decade’s time, and he wouldn’t say whether he’d oppose Murray’s budget plan if it included such provisions.
But Reid said he has Murray’s “back” in whatever she decides to do.
“Baucus isn’t chair of the Budget Committee,” Reid said plainly.
Republicans are also angling for a fight, having had to defend Ryan’s controversial budget that included a dramatic overhaul of Medicare, while Democrats didn’t have a plan of their own to defend. They put language in a debt ceiling law this year requiring both chambers to pass a budget resolution by April 15, or lawmakers would risk losing their pay.
“They will have to say publicly how much they want to tax; how much they want to cut spending, if any; and how much deficit they are prepared to accept,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the top Republican on the Budget Committee. “Then it won’t be so easy criticizing Congressman Ryan.”
Democrats contend that for the past two years, when then-North Dakota Sen. Kent Conrad ran the committee, they didn’t have to pass a budget resolution because it would have been superceded by the 2011 Budget Control Act, which set a binding set of spending limits. But avoiding a budget debate allowed Democrats to skirt some politically sensitive choices over taxes and spending, and spared their vulnerable members from taking tough votes.
Democrats believe the Murray plan will win the public relations war with a mix of spending cuts and tax hikes, as well as calls for new spending on areas like infrastructure, veterans programs and education measures. They say the political landscape has shifted, particularly over taxes.
New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, No. 3 in Democratic leadership, said Murray’s plan would be a “perfect foil” to Ryan’s approach.
“Whether you’re from a red state, blue state or purple state, people understand there’s a need for revenues,” Schumer said.
– Politico
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