When it comes to offering a budget that meets the OK of the Senate, President Obama is one-for-98. That’s the vote count for his just-proposed $4 trillion package – only one senator in favor, Democrat Tom Carper from Delaware.
This is practically par for the course for Obama insofar as his budget plans go. The Democratic-dominated Senate turned away Obama’s fiscal 2012 plan with a 99-0 vote, and his fiscal 2011 proposal, 97-0. On the House side in recent years, Democrats have skipped supporting the Obama package, too, due in part to worries about voter backlash for the White House’s high-dollar ticket items.
This year, the Republican-controlled Senate did decide to take a vote on Obama’s plan, which Sen. John Cornyn brought forth with an amendment.
Republicans then took time out from the Tuesday evening floor discussions to note how completely savaged the plan had been in the press, particularly for its emphasis on more taxes and spending and failure to address the federal deficit.
Even self-declared Socialist Bernie Sanders, who won his Senate seat as an Independent, declined to vote in favor of Obama’s spending plan. At the same time, he said the plan that came forward in Cornyn’s amendment wasn’t the same one presented by Obama, and for that reason, he was turning it down.
“I’m going to vote ‘no’ because I’m not quite sure what is in Senator Cornyn’s proposal, but certainly it is not what President Obama presented to the American people,” Sanders said, The Hill reported.
Among Sanders’ complaints: The plan presented the Senate didn’t include Obama’s proposed free community college idea.
Obama’s $4 trillion budget would have surpassed spending caps put in place by Congress.
Both House and Senate Republicans are set to bring forth budgets in the coming days that balance the budget within the next 10 years, The Blaze reported.
