Four budgets were being considered before the U.S. Senate today, and not a single Democrat voted for a single plan. Most notably, zero Democrats voted for President Obama’s budget, which was defeated 0 to 97.
Senate Democrats give the excuse that Obama has since revised his budget. But that’s a cop out. All Obama did was give a speech last month, he did not release a specific plan. Thus, the only actual budget he produced is the February plan that Democrats just voted against unanimously.
Tonight made abundantly clear that Democrats have decided on the strategy of isolating and attacking Rep. Paul Ryan’s plan, rather than presenting any of their own proposals that could prompt counter attacks. The party is in a bind when it comes to releasing a budget — if they cut too much in an attempt to match Ryan’s savings, they’ll alienate their base and allow Republicans to muddy the waters when it comes to contentious budget cuts. The only way to achieve Ryan’s deficit reduction otherwise would be to dramatically raise taxes, which would also open them up to attacks. So the only other alternatives are to release a budget that reduces deficits significantly less than Ryan’s, and thus look un-serious, or to not get behind any proposal at all. Thus far, they’ve chosen the latter approach.
The problem is, that doesn’t get them off the hook either. Almost all Democrats voted in favor of the Medicare rationing board, IPAB, as part of their votes in favor of Obamacare.
