Senate GOP tells Dems: Budget can’t wait

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), the Budget Committee chairman, said last week that, while Democrats on his panel were close to an agreement, he would delay a budget markup until after deficit discussions led by Vice President Joe Biden are over. 

Republicans slammed Conrad’s decision, but the North Dakota senator signaled that the budget resolution might be needed as a vehicle for a deal struck from the Biden talks. 

Conrad also termed his move strategic, saying pushing forward with a Senate budget could inject more partisanship into the efforts by Biden and a bipartisan group of lawmakers to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. 

The Budget chairman had earlier signaled that he wanted to give the Gang of Six, of which he is a member, time to come up with a plan that could be a framework for a Senate budget. But with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) taking a break from those talks, the Gang’s future is at best unclear. 

In the meantime, Conrad has been talking in recent weeks about a plan to reduce deficits by $4 trillion over a decade that would include roughly the same amount of new tax revenue and spending cuts. 

That sort of proposal would rely more on revenue than the vision outlined by President Obama in April. For their part, top GOP lawmakers have declared that they will not support tax increases as a way to battle deficits. 

Republicans in the Senate have also been far from shy in pointing out the amount of time — now more than 750 days — since the Democratic-led chamber last passed a budget. 

Sessions and Republicans on the Budget panel have also pushed Conrad and Democrats for a transparent budget process, asking that a proposal be publicly released at least three days before any markup.