–Senate Majority Leader Predicts House GOP And Dem Plans Will Fail
–Sen. Reid: Rips House GOP Budget As ‘Reckless’ Tea Part Plan
–Sen. Reid: After Senate Votes, Must ‘Go Back To Negotiating Table’
–Sen. Sessions: Democratic Plan Is a Vote To Do Nothing’
By John Shaw
WASHINGTON (MNI) – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Monday said
the Senate will vote Tuesday on both the House Republican plan to
complete the fiscal year 2011 budget and the Senate Democratic
alternative.
In remarks on the Senate floor, Reid said that he expects neither
the House Republican plan nor the Senate Democratic plan will secure the
requisite 60 votes needed to advance in the Senate.
Reid said after the two Senate votes occur, a bipartisan group of
negotiators should “go back to square one, back to the negotiating
table.”
Reid said that after these votes in the Senate are held it may
jump-start bipartisan talks on completing the FY’11 budget.
The House Republican plan funds government for the balance of FY’11
at about $61 billion below last year’s spending level while the Senate
Democratic alternative cuts spending by about $6.5 billion below last
year’s level.
Reid lambasted the House GOP plan as a “reckless” package that was
largely drafted by the Tea Party wing of the Republican party.
The House Republicans’ “shiny new budget is a lemon,” Reid said.
Speaking after Reid, Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on
the Senate Budget Committee, said Reid’s criticisms of the House GOP is
“hyperbolic.”
Sessions said a serious effort is necessary to cut federal spending
is needed. “We are on the wrong road,” he said.
He said a vote for the Senate Democratic plan “is a vote to do
nothing.”
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.
** Market News International Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **
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