–In Back To Back Votes, Senate Rejects Two Plans To Finish FY’11 Budget
–Senate Rejects House GOP Plan 44 to 56; Kills Senate Dem Plan 42 to 58
–House Speaker Says Dems Should Present ‘Serious’ Spending Cut Plan
–Growing Call To Expand Budget Talks Beyond FY’11 Discretionary Spendng

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) – In back to back votes Wednesday, the U.S. Senate
rejected both the House Republican plan to complete the fiscal year 2011
budget and the Senate Democratic alternative.

The Senate first defeated the House GOP plan on a 44 to 56 vote.
Sixty votes were required to pass the bill.

The Senate then defeated the Senate Democratic plan on a 42 to 58
vote. It also required 60 votes, so it fell well short of the requisite
vote.

The House Republican plan would have funded government for the
balance of FY’11 at about $61 billion below last year’s spending level
while the Senate Democratic alternative would have cut spending by about
$6.5 billion below last year’s level.

Senate leaders had set up a procedure in which 60 votes were
required for either bill to go forward.

Before the vote, Senate Majority Leader Reid predicted both plans
would fail and said he hoped the Senate votes would jump-start
bipartisan talks on completing the FY’11 budget. Vice President Biden
launched those talks last week but has been overseas all week. He will
be back in Washington next week.

Before the Senate voted, Senators from both parties called for more
intense bipartisan negotiations to finish the FY’11 budget.

“Both bills are dead and deserve to be dead,” Democratic senator
Ben Nelson said before the two votes. “One bill cuts too little. The
other bill has too much hate. Neither one is serious,” Nelson said.

Republican senator Tom Coburn said that it was now time for a
“reset of this budget debate,” adding it was important for “both sides
in the debate take a deep, collective breath.”

Also speaking before the vote, Democratic senator Chuck Schumer
called for a new approach in dealing with the budget stalemate using
“fresh eyes and a new mindset.”

Schumer said the time had come to “think big” and expand the budget
talks beyond non-defense discretionary programs to include other areas
of the budget.

Schumer was referring to the fact that while the current battle is
over the last six months of the FY’11 budget, Congress will soon begin
work on the FY’12 budget.

A bipartisan group of senators is working on a decade-long plan to
cut budget deficits deeply by drawing from savings from entitlements,
discretionary spending and tax reform.

Last week, Congress passed a two week stop-gap spending bill that
funds the federal government until March 18.

The 2011 fiscal year began on Oct. 1 and the government has run on
a series of short-term funding bills.

With no agreement on a final FY1’1 plan in sight, House Republican
leaders have said that Congress next week may have to pass another
stop-gap spending bill, that runs for two or three weeks, as talks
continue on a plan to complete the FY’11 budget.

After the Senate vote, House Speaker John Boehner called on Senate
Democrats to offer a “serious” spending cut plan.

** Market News International Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **

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