Partisan sparring continues over nonexistent budget

Democrats and Republicans have reached a rare area of
agreement — there aren’t enough votes to pass a budget in the House.

But that’s where the agreement ends.

{mosads}Republicans have argued that by not taking up the 2011
budget, the majority party is showing it can’t govern. Democrats counter that
they’ve pushed too many tough votes through the House to force another one
before Election Day.

On Thursday Republicans threw a new charge into the mix:
that Democrats had admitted they’ve thrown in the towel on a budget.

Top House Republicans seized on a pair of statements from
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) which
seemed to suggest that Democrats have already moved their focus onto the
appropriations process. Republicans claim this is evidence the majority has
given up on trying to pass a budget designed to serve as a blueprint for those
appropriations bills.

“We have several ways in which to meet our
responsibility in terms of bringing our appropriations bills to the
floor,” Pelosi told reporters. “Whatever decisions we make about how we go forward will be to meet
the needs of the American people, to do so in a way that reduces the deficit,
and that it meets our goal of cutting the deficit in half in five years.”

A few hours later, Hoyer said during his end-of-the-week
colloquy with Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) that he was “certainly
hopeful that we will deal with the issue of spending levels by the time we
bring appropriation bills to the floor.”

“We are working on that,” Hoyer continued.

As of last week, both Pelosi and Hoyer had said they were
continuing to work on producing a budget. A budget resolution binds Congress,
but is not law. It also serves as a blueprint for the actual appropriations
process, which spends the money suggested by the budget.

Republicans immediately seized on the Democratic leaders’
new language.

House Minority Leader John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) office quickly
released a statement “in response to the announcement by House Majority
Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) that Congressional Democrats will not pass a budget
resolution this year.”

House Appropriations Committee Ranking Republican Jerry Lewis (Calif.)
soon followed, saying that Republicans had taken Hoyer’s statement as a firm
declaration that no budget would be forthcoming.

“Today, we learned that the House Democrats are
completely disregarding one of the most basic duties of Congress and are not
going to produce a basic budget blueprint this year – for the first time in 30
years,” Lewis said in a statement. “And, in the midst of this, Democrat leaders are crafting a huge
emergency spending bill which will cost billions in taxpayer dollars.”

Hoyer’s office declined to comment on those claims. But earlier that day senior Democratic
aides said leaders were still having discussions with various groups within the
caucus to gauge support for possible budget scenarios, including budgets with
non-defense-related discretionary spending cuts that dozens of conservative
Democrats say are needed to win their support.

At the same time, there was no denying that little progress
has been made on finding a number palatable to a majority of Democrats. And the window for a budget is closing, both logistically
and politically.

“Last year’s budget was not exactly easy,” said
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), a member of the Budget Committee. “It’s almost Memorial Day. Beyond that it’s an exercise in
futility. It might be
already.”