Today in Washington D. C. - March 30, 2009

The Senate began consideration of the Democrats’$3.5 trillion fiscal year 2010 budget resolution, S. Con. Res. 13, which Republicans have been saying spends too much, taxes too much, and borrows too much. Under Senate rules, the budget may be debated for 50 hours, not counting voting time. The annual vote-a-rama on budget amendments is likely to begin Wednesday or Thursday, with a final vote on the budget expected late Thursday or Friday.

The proposal was passed by the Senate Budget Committee on a party line vote last week. After voting against the Democrats’ budget resolution in committee, Sen. Graham (R-SC) said, “The Democratic budget proposal makes it virtually impossible for future generations to enjoy the same standard of living as their parents and grandparents. The American people want change but I fear the Senate Democratic and President Obama budget is change our nation simply cannot afford.”

Though some Democrats made a show last week of highlighting differences between the Senate’s budget plan and President Obama’s, Roll Call points out today that the Senate budget resolution “closely mirrors Obama’s original proposal.” In the Republican response to President Obama’s weekly address, ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, Judd Gregg, discussed the unprecedented levels of debt that the budget saddles Americans with. Sen. Gregg said, “In the next five years, President Obama’s budget will double the national debt; in the next ten years it will triple the national debt. To say this another way, if you take all the debt of our country run up by all of our presidents from George Washington through George W. Bush, the total debt over all those 200-plus years since we started as a nation, it is President Obama’s plan to double that debt in just the first five years that he is in office.”

All the debt, spending, and taxes proposed in this budget has given some moderate Democrats a great deal of concern. Yet Roll Call reports today that they may be preparing to cave to the White House and Democrat leaders when it comes time for the final vote on the budget later this week. According to Roll Call, “‘[N]o’ votes from centrist Democrats are not what the party leadership expects. In fact, Reid and other top Senate Democrats haven’t bothered to whip for votes on the budget. They’ve left that task to Obama, who was on the Hill last week lunching with his former Democratic colleagues to do just that. . . . Perhaps tellingly, none of the moderates who are lukewarm to elements of the president’s budget used Wednesday’s lunch with him to voice their concerns, according to a Senate Democratic leadership aide.”

Meanwhile, Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) signaled over the weekend that he might be open to the administration’s energy tax proposal (masquerading as a carbon cap-and-trade program) in order to pay for Obama’s health care plans. This energy tax could cost the average American household as much as $3100 per year at a time when Americans can least afford it. The key question for Sen. Conrad, is whether he and his fellow Democrats will support House plans to include both health care and the energy tax in reconciliation, special rules that can bypass Senate filibusters.

Sen. McConnell said, “Americans don’t need another $3,100 added onto their tax bill. But just as worrisome is the method that’s being used to ram this tax through Congress: lay the groundwork, keep it quiet, then rush it through with as little transparency and as little debate as possible. If there’s anything we have learned over the last few weeks, it’s that the American people want more people watching the store, not less.”

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