A Budget Proposal for Each Members Taste
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
A Budget Proposal for Each Member's Taste
By: Daniel Newhauser, Roll Call, March 28,2012
The House floor today will become the Baskin-Robbins of budgets:
Every political persuasion has its own flavor.
Members have already said they will double-dip and vote for
multiple spending plans, but with seven budgets to consider during
floor debate, it is becoming increasingly clear that Budget
Chairman Paul Ryan's blueprint is the only one that can pass the
chamber.
Even if the Wisconsin Republican's $1.028 trillion plan wins
out, however, it would be a symbolic victory at best. Democratic
leadership has pointed out that last summer's Budget Control Act is
the law of the land and they and the Senate will stick to its
$1.047 trillion level.
"Everybody knows that Ryan's budget is not going to be taken up
by the Senate and passed. So it will be deemed here, but
effectively as a means of balancing the budget it's dead," said
Rep. Mike Simpson (R-
Idaho), a member of the Budget Committee who said he will vote for
the Ryan's plan.
As a result, Simpson and other House moderates engaged on
Tuesday, hoping, amid, or perhaps because of, the partisan
bickering, they can sneak a balanced deficit reduction deal
through the House.
Reps. Steven LaTourette (R-Ohio) and Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) are
gathering support for a plan modeled on the deficit reduction
solutions suggested by a White House-commissioned panel led by
former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) and Clinton-era White House Chief
of Staff Erskine Bowles.
"Whereas all the other proposals have a snowball's chance in a
microwave of actually becoming something enacted in the Senate,
this one's got a shot," LaTourette said Tuesday.
Cooper almost offered the same proposal last year, but he said
he pulled it after a request from the bipartisan "gang of six"
Senators working on deficit reduction. This year, Cooper said, he
has their blessing.
Still, Sen. Mark Warner, a member of the gang of six, was not
hot on the idea Tuesday.
"I share the intent," the Virginia Democrat said. "It'd be great
to have more time to build the case and lay out the details. But I
also understand the frustrations of continuing to wait."
Still, Mike Simpson said there is some discussion about whether
now is the right time.
"You're trying to put a common-sense, balanced solution to the
problem in the middle of the most partisan debate that will occur
in Congress," he said. "In this environment, you'll have people
that would otherwise vote for Simpson-Bowles that would vote
against it because they're going to vote for the Ryan budget or
they're going to vote for the [Democratic] budget on the other
side."
Indeed, one of the Simpson-Bowles plan's boosters, Minority Whip
Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), declined to say Tuesday whether he would
support the deal.
Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson (Conn.) predicted many
Democrats could support the Simpson-Bowles budget, but LaTourette
was skeptical, holding that the political allure of bashing the GOP
on Medicare would be too great to resist.
"I think some of the higher-ups in the Democratic Party are very
much looking forward to beating us like baby seals over the
Medicare thing in the Ryan budget and they don't want to lose that
message," he said.
Though the Ryan budget will likely lose more than a few GOP
votes, conservatives who initially spurned it are falling in
line.
Even as Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Jordan presented
his own budget Tuesday morning, he acknowledged that he and many
others in the RSC will back Ryan. "I think the vast majority of
folks up here are going to support the Conference budget because
that's the one budget that can get 218 votes and pass," the Ohio
Republican said.
The RSC budget balances the budget sooner than Ryan's does, and
that should attract GOP support, said Budget Vice Chairman Scott
Garrett, an RSC member.
"I would suggest that every member of the Republican Conference,
who just several months ago ... voted for a balanced budget
amendment ... have to think long and hard when the only budget that
comes to the floor this week that will actually fulfill that
promise will be the RSC budget," the New Jersey lawmaker said.
The RSC budget nearly passed last year, when Democrats voted
"present," leaving only Republicans represented in the vote tally.
Similar high jinks could occur at Thursday's floor vote.
Budget ranking member Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) has presented a
Democratic budget and is flanked to his left by alternatives from
the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Congressional Black
Caucus.
Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) has sponsored President Barack
Obama's budget as an amendment, essentially daring Democrats to
vote for it.
Senate Budget ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said Ryan's
budget will probably be taken up in the Senate, too, as will the
Obama budget and one from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).
Unlike Van Hollen, Sessions said he will likely not present a
minority caucus alternative, laying the blame for that on Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).