The Democratic-led Senate on Wednesday emphatically rejected a budget-slashing House spending bill as too draconian. It then immediately killed a rival Democratic plan that was derided by moderate Democrats as too timid in its drive to cut day-to-day agency budgets.
The votes to scuttle the competing measures were designed, ironically, to prompt progress. The idea was to show tea party-backed GOP conservatives in the House that they need to pare back their budget-cutting ambitions while at the same time demonstrating to Democratic liberals that they need to budge, too.
White House budget director Jacob Lew said the votes should turn a page and that talks between the administration and Republicans are likely to become more productive. The negotiators are unlikely to meet a March 18 deadline, which means another stopgap budget extension would be required to keep the government from shutting down.
"We want to come to a reasonable outcome," Lew said. "We've made it clear that that's not the end, that there are more savings. But we've also said that there's a line beyond which we can't go."
Top Senate Democrats visited with Obama on Wednesday afternoon to plot strategy. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., a participant, declined to comment afterward, other than to say he recognizes that his party will have to move in the GOP's direction.
The GOP plan mustered 44 aye votes; the Democratic measure received just 42 votes, with 10 party members and liberal independent Bernard Sanders of Vermont in opposition.
At issue was legislation to fund the day-to-day operating budgets of every federal agency through the Sept. 30 end of the budget year and provide a $158 billion infusion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Republicans who dominate the House, driven by a campaign promise to return domestic agency budgets to 2008 spending levels, last month passed a measure to cut more than $60 billion. The bill imposes, on average, cuts of 13 percent on domestic agencies.
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