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Senate poised to pass budget
By Erik Wasson - 03/22/13 06:00 AM ET
The Democrat-controlled Senate appears set to approve its first budget resolution in four years.
Votes on amendments to the budget began Thursday night, with a final vote set for late Friday or early Saturday.
In a sign of caucus unity, only one Democrat broke ranks to support a key GOP motion on Thursday night. The motion simply called for Democrats to rewrite their budget so that it balanced within ten years.
Only Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) joined Republicans to support it.
The entire Democratic caucus also rejected a GOP amendment to replace the budget's tax reform instructions, which raises $975 billion in revenue, with instructions to complete revenue-neutral tax reform.
Democrats can only afford to lose only five votes on their budget, which would allow Vice President Biden to cast a tie-breaking ballot. A handful of Democrats from red states, several of whom are facing re-election in 2014, are the key.
Undecided senators include Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Mark Begich (D-Alaska), Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.). If they all voted “no,” the budget would fail.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has prevented a budget resolution from being debated since 2009 in part to protect his members from tough votes.
But he has signaled this year will be different.
“We're going to finish the budget before we leave here for the Easter break,” Reid promised this week. “That is for sure. My caucus knows this."
Vulnerable Democratic senators could be seen going in and out of Reid’s office on Thursday as Senate leaders tried to shore up their troops.
Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) emerged to say he had decided at the last minute to support the plan. “We looked through it. We think attacks the deficit from a reasonable perspective and protects investments to get the economy going,” Tester said.
He said he didn’t know if it would pass, and if an amendment allowing online purchases to be hit with sales taxes were attached it would be a problem for him.
Other vulnerable Democrats like Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) have joined Tester in supporting the budget.
Reid and Senate Budget Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) say their plan would reduce the deficit by $4 trillion.
But it includes nearly $1 trillion in new taxes that could be difficult for some centrist Democrats to support. And since the Democratic budget turns off the sequester of automatic spending cuts, Republicans argue it would increase spending over the next decade.
The Senate budget is unlikely to be reconciled with the House budget to become law, but that won’t stop the GOP from using Democratic votes for the budget in future campaign ads.
Reid and Murray are selling the budget as a “balanced approach” backed by the public in the 2012 elections.
They argue that, counting $1.8 trillion in spending cuts from the last Congress, the plan adds up to more than $4 trillion in deficit reduction—a feat in line with the 2010 recommendations of the Bowles-Simpson Commission.
Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/289753-senate-poised-to-pass-budget#ixzz2OHPCRTDc
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The Senate budget is unlikely to be reconciled with the House budget to become law,
So will this mean another year with no budget being approved by this Dysfunctional Congress?