http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/apr/17/democrats-punt-on-senate-budget-bill-for-3rd-year/
Democrats punt on Senate budget bill for 3rd year
Committee chairman to revisit Bowles-Simpson plan of 2010
By Stephen Dinan
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The Washington Times
More Sharing ServicesShareIn a stunning backtrack that virtually guarantees Congress for the third year will be unable to produce a budget, Senate Democrats’ top budget writer Tuesday canceled this week’s expected votes on a 2013 fiscal blueprint.
Instead, Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, North Dakota Democrat, said he will use the next few months to try to breathe life into the shelved 2-year-old Bowles-Simpson deficit commission proposal.
Mr. Conrad said he wasn’t able to get enough Democrats to back a fiscal 2013 budget, much less reach a bipartisan agreement, and that he decided instead to try to kick-start a longer-term debate.
“This is the wrong time to vote in the committee. This is the wrong time to vote on the floor,” Mr. Conrad told reporters as he announced his strategy. “We do need to try to maximize the chance as we get closer to all the tax cuts expiring and the sequester being imposed that we’re ready to act.”
He said he will still convene the Budget Committee this week and introduce his plan, but won’t hold any votes or debate any amendments.
His move stunned Senate Republicans, who had been preparing amendments for Wednesday and Thursday.
“It’s hard to negotiate with somebody who won’t tell you where they are,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Budget Committee, who said Mr. Conrad was breaking a promise he made to debate and vote on a budget.
Hanging over the discussion is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, who had steadfastly said he would not bring a budget to the floor this year — and who, Republicans said, pressured Mr. Conrad into complying.
On Tuesday, Mr. Reid declined to answer specific questions about his strategy but told reporters he had “nothing but confidence for Kent Conrad.”
Given the opposition, Mr. Conrad instead decided to try to revive the Bowles-Simpson plan, named after former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles and former Sen. Alan Simpson, who led a commission that produced a plan for raising taxes and limiting spending — all designed to reduce long-term deficits.
Though President Obama established the Bowles-Simpson commission, he rejected its December 2010 proposal, and Democrats who controlled Congress at the time did not bring up it up for a vote.
But it has simmered in the background, with lawmakers occasionally saying it should serve as a basis for negotiations — only to see both Democratic and Republican leaders block their efforts.
Mr. Conrad, a member of the commission, said the plan needs to be updated, but that his version will lower the debt to 93 percent of gross domestic product by 2022 — it is more than 100 percent now — and would push for changes in Social Security, while preserving Mr. Obama’s health care law.
Under Mr. Conrad’s plan, spending would be nearly 22 percent of GDP in 2022 and taxes would be 20.5 percent. Both numbers are well above the average for the past six decades, but the North Dakota Democrat said those are the levels needed to fund the government’s promises.
