Dem senator slams GOP budget resolutions as ‘extremist’

{mosads}Sen. Sheldon Whitehouses’s (D-R.I.) comments came just before the Senate’s Wednesday afternoon vote on five separate budget resolutions, all of which are likely to fail. Republicans have accused Democrats of failing to produce an actual budget while Democrats have shot back that they have a sufficient substitute in the Budget Control Act passed in 2011.

“This whole exercise today rests on a false premise and the false premise is that we have no budget,” Whitehouse said. “Instead of focusing on real issues, where real jobs are at stake, they are wasting real time on extremist Tea Party budgets.”

Whitehouse said the votes on the budget resolutions Republicans were pushing are “radical” and meant to benefit the wealthiest Americans.

“Today’s votes are nothing more than a Republican attempt to promote a radical and unwelcome agenda of slashing middle class programs while protecting and even enlarging tax giveaways for the ultra-rich,” Whitehouse said.

But not every Democrat was as critical as Whitehouse. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), in voicing his disagreement with the GOP budget resolutions, said the votes were still important.

“It is an exercise in discussing the budget,” Durbin said.