Obama told Senate Democrats that a bigger deal on spending and entitlements is the only way to end the automatic spending cuts that started on March 1, Harkin said. Those cuts, known as sequestration, take $85 billion from the current fiscal year. In all, $1.2 trillion would be cut over nine years.
The Senate this week is considering a bill extending the government’s current spending authority after its March 27 expiration. The measure introduced by Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat, would give the Defense Department and six other Cabinet-level agencies flexibility to implement the cuts. It would also continue to freeze the pay of government workers through Dec. 31.
Democrats argue that Obama’s 2012 re-election victory over Republican challenger Mitt Romney turned largely on winning the argument over government spending, taxes and the future of Medicare and other entitlements.
“We have really good common ground with the American people” with a budget that “does a good job of balancing our economy and creating jobs” and “responsibly” cutting the deficit, Murray told reporters.
Democratic Opposition
Ryan’s budget also contains elements that Democrats are committed to opposing. It assumes that a Democratic-controlled Senate would go along with a House Republican plan to repeal the 2010 health-care law, which is set to be fully implemented next year. It would also partially privatize Medicare by giving future recipients -- those now younger than 55 -- a choice to buy private insurance with a government subsidy.
Republicans will continue push their spending- and tax- cutting agenda even though they lost the presidential election and Democrats gained a bigger majority, said Ryan, his party’s vice presidential nominee last year.
“This is our offer,” Ryan told reporters yesterday. “This is our vision.” As a party that still controls the House, he said, “what you do is you actually show that country what you believe in.”