Democrats march to budget war

Democrats in the White House and Congress are ramping up their attacks on the Republican budget, setting the stage for a months-long spending fight that could leave GOP leaders scrambling to avoid another government shutdown.

Senate and House Republicans on Wednesday released a unified 2016 budget proposal that sketches out the party’s legislative agenda, including steep spending cuts to domestic programs, a repeal of ObamaCare and a host of other conservative goodies designed to excite their base.

{mosads}But, foreshadowing the difficulties facing Republican leaders, GOP Sen. Bob Corker (Tenn.) stalled the package for several days over concerns it won’t cut enough, and a House vote on the first spending bill implementing the budget was abruptly called off late Wednesday evening.

The White House has already threatened to veto the first two Republican spending bills over concerns that they cut too much, and House Democrats have made clear that they are prepared to sustain at least one of those vetoes if necessary.

Wielding control of Congress for the first time in eight years, Republicans are under heavy pressure to govern effectively. Both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) entered the year vowing there would be no government shutdowns or debt defaults on their watch.

But the budget dynamics leave them with the difficult task of devising spending bills that can attract enough bipartisan support to pass through both chambers — and win President Obama’s signature — for the sake of avoiding a government shutdown like the one that damaged the GOP politically in 2013.

Democrats won’t be providing any cover. Obama’s allies from both chambers quickly denounced the Republicans’ budget blueprint as a giveaway to corporations and other special interests at the expense of working people.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) characterized the GOP package as a “bad deal” that would “ransack America’s future.” Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.) accused Republicans of “living in an ideological house of mirrors that does not reflect any reality.” And Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee and a likely presidential candidate, called the proposal “a national embarrassment.” 

“At a time of massive wealth and income inequality,” Sanders told reporters in the Capitol, “this budget gives huge tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires, while making devastating cuts to education, Medicare, affordable housing, prescription drug coverage and many other vital investments for the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor.”

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) has long criticized the GOP’s budget strategy — particularly the adherence to sequester cuts enacted several years ago — noting even some top Republican appropriators have denounced those levels of spending as unrealistic.

Schumer, the third-ranking Democrat in the upper chamber, echoed that criticism, accusing GOP leaders of producing a political messaging bill that even most Republicans wouldn’t support.

“If you asked the average Republican Party member to actually approve this budget, they’d be aghast,” he said. “This is to appease a narrow few who seem to be running the show.”

Unveiled Wednesday by House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-Ga.) and Senate Budget Chairman Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), the Republicans’ budget blueprint aims to eliminate deficit spending over a decade with more than $5 trillion in spending cuts, $430 billion in Medicare savings and procedural language designed to repeal ObamaCare.

GOP leaders are hailing the package — the first budget to be reconciled by the two chambers in six years — as a common-sense way to rein in federal spending without sacrificing the economic gains made since the Great Recession. They’re framing it as a new way of doing business under a Republican-controlled Congress.

“Now that the Senate is under new management, we are getting back to work rebuilding the trust of hard-working Americans and doing the people’s business,” Enzi said in a statement. “This will help change the way we do business here in Washington to make the government live within its means — just like hard-working families.” 

The spending blueprint, which does not require Obama’s signature, is expected to get a House vote Friday.

But even if the budget passes, the real test for Republican leaders is only beginning.

House Republicans on Wednesday evening were expected to pass a $77 billion proposal funding the Veterans Affairs (VA) Department and military construction projects in fiscal 2016.

But a vote on the bill was delayed late Wednesday evening amid concerns that a bipartisan amendment to eliminate use of a Pentagon war fund for military construction projects might have the votes to pass.

GOP aides denied any issue with the whip count and insisted the vote was postponed so that the conference report on the budget could be approved first.

A second appropriations bill funding the Energy Department had been expected to pass the House later in the week, but the delay of the VA bill could put that timeline at risk. The House is scheduled to be on recess next week.

The White House has threatened to veto both spending measures, and House Democratic leaders were lining up Wednesday in support of the threat to reject the VA bill. 

“I won’t support it,” Rep. Joseph Crowley (N.Y.), vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus, said Wednesday of the VA bill, “and I don’t believe our caucus will support that, either.” 

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Wednesday that breaking the coming partisan impasse over government spending will require leaders from both parties to reach a compromise on funding levels, much as Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) did in 2013. 

“Ultimately, members of Congress, and probably leaders in Congress from both parties, are going to have to decide who will play those important roles,” Earnest said.

“But if they do begin to move down this road in a constructive fashion, they can anticipate the full engagement and support of the administration in pursuit of that bipartisan compromise.”

– Cristina Marcos contributed.