Senate Still Wrangling over Spending Bill
Policy + Politics

Senate Still Wrangling over Spending Bill

Senate leaders delayed until Wednesday consideration of a bill to fund the government through Sept. 30, as Democrats accused Republicans of reneging on an agreement to stage side-by-side votes on two competing plans to cut spending.

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) charged that GOP senators were afraid to vote on a House proposal to cut $61 billion from domestic agencies over the next six months, a bill Reid derided as the "tea party plan."

"Their plan slashes billions from the budget and hopes no one will look past the price tag. Because Republicans know that once the country sees what's in the fine print, it will run away from it as fast as they can," Reid said during a speech on the Senate floor. "Now it seems Republicans themselves must have finally read their own budget."

Republicans accused Reid of trying to divert attention from divisions in his own party, highlighting a speech Tuesday by freshman Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) that accused the White House of failing to show leadership in the budget talks.

With a March 18 deadline looming, the White House and Senate Democrats have offered a plan to cut less than $5 billion from domestic agencies through the remainder of the fiscal year, a proposal that even some moderate Democrats have criticized as insufficient in light of record budget deficits.

Last week, in talks with Vice President Biden, Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) agreed to bring both proposals to the Senate floor, where neither is expected to muster the 60 votes needed to avert a filibuster. If both proposals fail, both sides would have leverage to demand a compromise from liberals resisting spending cuts and conservatives demanding more.

But on Tuesday, some Republicans balked at supporting the House plan, despite an appeal for party unity from McConnell. For many Senate Republicans, the House measure is littered with political land mines.

Read more at The Washington Post.

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