Democratic Caucus budget fails in 165-253 vote, 28 Dems vote against

The Democratic budget plan would raise $1.2 trillion in new taxes over the next decade, and calls for $200 billion in new stimulus spending. GOP opposition to these components and many others doomed the plan to failure in the House, and every Republican voted against it.

Democrats defended their budget by saying additional government spending would help boost jobs, and that taxes on the wealthy would not hurt job creation.

{mosads}”We focus first and foremost on the priority of kicking our economy into higher gear, and putting more Americans back to work,” Budget Committee ranking member Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said.

“We get at the budget issues by putting more people back to work. By dealing with this in a balanced way, we reduce the deficit way down so it’s growing much slower than the economy; we stabilize the debt.”

But Republicans said the Democratic budget risks economic growth by raising taxes, and makes a minimal difference in the deficit and debt. Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said that if nothing is changed, the debt would increase 56 percent over 10 years, and that the Democratic budget would reduce that to a 54 percent increase.

“That’s basically doing nothing at all,” he said. Ryan also reiterated that the Democratic budget never balances, unlike Ryan’s budget plan that the House is expected to pass on Thursday.

“Here’s the theme: take more money from economy, take more money from families, take more money from small businesses, spend it in Washington, and hope everything works out,” he said of the Democratic plan. “It’s not working out.”

The vote on the Democratic budget was the last in a series of five votes held Wednesday, in preparation for passing Ryan’s budget on Thursday.

In addition to the Democratic plan, the House rejected budget plans from the Republican Study Committee, the Congressional Black Caucus and the Progressive Caucus. Members also killed a proposal based on the Senate Democratic budget, which was offered by Republicans.