◼ What do Democrats have against balanced budgets?
Senator Jeff Sessions offered a motion tonight to send Patty Murray's Senate budget back to committee with instructions to re-do it in any way necessary to produce a balanced budget.
There were no caveats to how this should be done - Senators were simply voting to accept or reject the very principle of balancing the federal budget within 10 years. Text of the motion follows:
Mr. Sessions moves to commit S. Con. Res. 8 back to the Committee on the Budget with instructions to report back no later than March 22, 2013 with such changes as may be necessary to achieve unified budget balance by fiscal year 2023.Every Democrat Senator except for Sen. Joe Manchin voted against this measure.
...Senate Democrats also voted unanimously tonight to maintain the $1 trillion in tax increases in their budget plan which includes raising taxes on the middle class.
They rejected an amendment offered by Sen. Chuck Grassley, a senior member of the Finance Committee and the Budget Committee, which would have protected the middle class and paved the way for pro-growth tax reform.Grassley said in his speech before the vote, "the Democrat budget taxes the middle class to spend more. It is 'balanced and fair' because they finally figured out that you can't just raise taxes on the wealthy, they gotta raise it on the middle class!"
◼ Senate Democrats unite to defeat balanced budget motion - The Hill
“Tonight the American people witnessed a remarkable and alarming event: the Senate’s Democrat majority declared they do not want to balance the budget, will not balance the budget, and will oppose any effort to balance the budget in any way," Sessions said after the vote.
◼ Paul Ryan's House Republican Budget vs. Patty Murray's Senate Democrat Budget - Peter Ferrara/Forbes
The bottom line on Ryan’s Republican budget is that it restores federal taxes and spending back near the long term, stable level as a percent of GDP that prevailed for 60 years after World War II, from 1948 to 2008.
...The Democrats have attacked Ryan’s budget claiming it is “extremist” and “radical.”
