House rejects budget from Senate Democrats

[WestVirginiaRebel]

The Hill:

The House on Wednesday rejected the Senate Democratic budget in a 154-261 vote, with 35 Democrats voting against the blueprint from their upper chamber colleagues.

The Senate Democratic budget was one of three budgets cast aside in a series of votes Wednesday after a debate in which Republicans excoriated President Obama for failing to offer his own budget plan in time for the votes.

House Democrats were instructed to vote for the Senate Democratic budget, but 35 of them defected.

Blue Dog Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) said he voted against the Senate budget because it did not go far enough on entitlements.

"It is not enough entitlement reform in there going forward. It needs to be a more complete and balanced picture and it wasn't bipartisan in the end of the day," Schrader told The Hill.

He said he thinks there is an even chance of a deficit grand bargain this summer, but it will not look anything like the House majority or Senate majority budgets.

"Given the fact that none of these bills are going to pass with any bipartisan votes, it begs the question. The president has teed it up. He has talked about entitlement reform--not the Paul Ryan approach--he's defended some of the tough things in front of the Democrat caucus," Schrader said.

He said there are many centrist Republicans who would do something to increase revenue in exchange for real entitlement reform.

The Senate budget has been criticized by Republicans for doing too little to cut spending. It would turn off the sequester and includes $975 billion in new taxes. It also includes new spending cuts, but it would increase spending when turning off the sequester is included in the calculation.

Democrats in the Senate hope to see their budget approved by the end of the week. It would be the first budget passed by the Senate in four years.

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Skepticism from within Democratic ranks.