McConnell: Obama’s delayed budget like dropping a ‘bomb’ on legislative process

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that President Obama’s plan to submit a budget to Congress in April will be like dropping a “bomb” on the legislative process.

McConnell warned that with both the House and Senate expected to pass budget plans this month, Obama’s delay could disrupt lawmakers’ effort to reach an accord.

{mosads}”Rather than helping to lead Congress toward a reasonable outcome, it appears the president is happy to drop the bomb on the congressional budget process instead, by releasing his budget plan after — after — the House and Senate have already acted,” McConnell said on the Senate floor.

“The president should send over his budget now, not next week, or next month, but today, so both sides can consider it at a time when it might be helpful, rather than destructive, to the entire process,” he added.

The Obama administration has said the president’s budget for 2014 would be presented to Congress in April, two months past the legal deadline.

McConnell said that no president has ever submitted a budget after Congress acted on its proposals since the modern budgeting process began in the 1920s.

House Republicans and Senate Democrats are introducing their budget proposals today, and both are expected to be marked up in committee on Wednesday.

The House GOP budget would cut spending by $5.7 trillion, reduce the top tax rate to 25 percent and balance the budget within 10 years. It would also turn Medicare into a partially privatized system with government support for people 54 and older, similar to the plan put forward by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) last year.

McConnell said he anticipates the Senate Democratic budget to include more spending and tax hikes, and predicted it would never balance.

“Call me a skeptic, but there’s little chance the budget my Senate Democratic friends put forward will balance, either today, 10 years from today or ever,” he said.

“If they want to put forward a budget that allows Medicare to go bankrupt, that hikes up taxes on families and the small businesses that can least afford them, and it proposes a future of massive deficits without end — if that’s really how they want to define themselves for the American people, then let the battle of ideas begin.”