Budget ‘A Feat Of Considerable Importance’
‘A Budget Deal That Aims To Torpedo Obamacare While Balancing The Federal Books Within 10 Years’
‘Last Time Congress Passed A Balanced Budget Was The Year Apple Released The iPod’
“…a budget deal that aims to torpedo ObamaCare while balancing the federal books within 10 years. The deal would approve more than $5 trillion in spending cuts over a decade, and seeks to use the budget procedure known as reconciliation to send a repeal of the healthcare law to President Obama’s desk. The budget also sticks to the $1.017 trillion sequestration budget ceiling for 2016, and boosts military spending through an infusion of cash into the war fund.” (“GOP Unveils Budget Deal That Seeks Repeal Of Obamacare,” The Hill, 4/29/15)
- “…it will be the first Republican budget agreement in a decade.” (“GOP Unveils Budget Deal That Seeks Repeal Of Obamacare,” The Hill, 4/29/15)
- “…the first spending blueprint agreed to by both chambers of Congress since 2009.” (“U.S. House and Senate Republicans Agree on Combined Budget,” Wall Street Journal, 4/29/15)
- “Senate budget staff often brag that the last time Congress passed a balanced budget was the year Apple released the iPod.” (“GOP Budget Dodges Fights Over Entitlements, Defense,” Politico, 4/27/15)
The Old Senate: For Four Of The Past Five Years Dems ‘Defiantly Refused’ To Pass A Budget
2010: “…Democrats …simply refusing to pass a budget resolution this election year.” (“Budget Woes? Just Don't Pass One, Democrats Say,” The Baltimore Sun, 5/24/10)
2011: SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV): “‘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.” (“Harry Reid: ‘Foolish’ For Democrats To Offer Budget Plan,” LA Times, 5/20/11)
2012: “…Democratic leaders have defiantly refused to lay out their own vision for how to deal with federal debt and spending… centrists in the 53-member Democratic conference expressed frustration with their party’s budget inaction.” (“Lack Of Budget Irks Moderate Dems,” Politico, 5/15/12)
2014: “Democrats in the U.S. Senate won't bother passing their own budget this year…” (“U.S. Senate Democrats Do Not Plan To Pass Budget This Year: Murray,” Reuters, 2/28/14)
Budget ‘A Feat Of Considerable Importance’
FORMER SEN. JUDD GREGG: ‘budget … a feat of considerable importance’ “It is not easy to a pass a budget. No Congress has been able to do it for many years. It is, however, the responsibility of the Congress to have a budget. This is, after all, an almost $4 trillion activity we call the government of the United States. ... Now it has one, or is on the verge of having one. It is a feat of considerable importance and reflects the adept leadership of a couple of quiet but relentless legislators in Enzi and Price. Once again, governing is breaking out.” (Op-Ed, “Progress in the Senate,” The Hill, 5/4/15)
FORMER REP. JAMES WALSH: “Normally, budgets do not matter that much, but these do. Each budget document calls for a reconciliation process which enables all kinds of possibilities, including entitlement reform, which most agree is the woolly mammoth in the room. With the "doc fix," 17 years of ice thawed when this permanent funding solution was reached.” (“A Promising Political Spring In Washington,” The Hill, 4/27/15)
GORDON GRAY: ‘a complete congressional budget… a worthy accomplishment in the effort to return to “regular order”’ “The House and Senate have officially begun discussions to iron out differences between each chambers’ budget resolutions, a process that should result in a complete congressional budget for the first time in 6 years. This alone is a worthy accomplishment in the effort to return to ‘regular order.’” (“The budget And Governing,” The Hill, 4/24/15)
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Related Issues: Restoring the Senate, Budget, Back to Work
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