Congressional Democrats on Wednesday stepped up their criticism of the Republican budget plans, assailing them as bad for the middle class.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) suggested that the Republican budgets are “insensitive and unaware” of the challenges that many people face.
“When you bring this down to family level, working families across America, it really is a budget that is insensitive and unaware of the realities of life for working families,” he said. “We think the choice is going to be clear: We want to stand up for working and middle-income families all across this country, not the special interests.”
{mosads}Durbin appeared at a press conference to bash the GOP budgets plans with Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) as well as Reps. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) and Steve Israel (D-N.Y.).
Sanders, who is considering a potential 2016 bid, accused Republicans of siding with the wealthy over the middle class.
“They will not ask the billionaires … to pay one nickel more in taxes,” he said. “While millions of people are struggling … the wealthiest people and the large corporations are doing exceptionally well.”
Israel and Schumer portrayed middle-class Americans as the victims of a Republican budget fight.
“There are two wars going on in Washington, D.C.: One is the Republican civil war, where they are pulling each other apart in this battle of budgets,” Israel said. “The only thing they’re united on is their cold war against hardworking Americans.”
House Republicans are expected to vote Wednesday on two budgets, with the one that receives the most votes set to be adopted. In the Senate, meanwhile, a fight on defense spending that pits fiscal hawks against defense hawks is brewing.
Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee added $38 billion to the Pentagon’s Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) fund last week. But Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) introduced a budget amendment Tuesday that would further increase defense spending.
Rubio, speaking on the Senate floor, said, while he respects the work of the Budget Committee, he believes senators need to have a “serious debate” over defense spending.
Senate Republicans say their budget will help the middle class, while also boosting the economy. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the budget is about “promoting an economy that works better for the middle-class today.”
“This balanced budget aims to make government more efficient, more effective and more accountable,” he said.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) called the GOP’s pledge to the middle class “a joke.”
“They use the words, but it’s just a joke,” Reid said from the Senate floor. “All this happy talk … its just a farce.”
Schumer said Republicans will be “mired in debate” about the budget for weeks, and suggested that infighting could provide leverage to Democrats and President Obama when it’s time to fund government agencies later this year.
“They may be able to paper over the differences in the budget process,” Schumer said. “They’re not going to be able to paper over their divisions when it comes to appropriations. … The fact that they’re divided, they have two factions — you know, a defense hawk faction and a budget hawk faction — is going to play very badly for them down the road.”