Obama budget lacks votes

By Walter Alarkon
Posted: 03/10/09 08:13 PM [ET]

President Obama’s budget doesn’t have enough support from lawmakers to pass, the Senate Budget Committee chairman said Tuesday.

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said he has spoken to enough colleagues about several different provisions in the budget request to make him think Congress won’t pass it.

Conrad urged White House budget director Peter Orszag not to “draw lines in the sand” with lawmakers, most notably on Obama’s plan for a cap-and-trade system to curb carbon emissions.

“Anybody who thinks it will be easy to get the votes on the budget in the conditions that we face is smoking something,” Conrad said.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, when asked Tuesday about the Democratic criticism of the budget, told reporters that it wasn’t unusual. He noted that lawmakers and the president often have competing agendas.

“I don’t think, ultimately, the criticism is surprising,” Gibbs said. “That certainly happens and is all part of a process.”

Conrad joined Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.), the top Republican on the Budget Committee, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in criticizing the administration’s cap-and-trade proposal for not doing enough to counterbalance increases in energy costs that will be felt by consumers and companies, especially those in energy states such as North Dakota.

Conrad said that it would be a “distant hope” to expect the climate change plan to pass unless it includes help for industries that would be hit hard by limits on carbon emission production.

The North Dakota Democrat also knocked the Obama administration’s plan to cut subsidies for farmers with incomes of more than $500,000. He noted that Congress just rewrote its agricultural policies last year in a bill that received 81 votes in the Senate. The administration has said that it could save taxpayers nearly $10 billion over the next decade from stopping direct federal payments to wealthy farmers, but Conrad denied that the farm policies were not fiscally responsible.

“The Farm Bill was paid for. We made a lot of tough choices. We raised money. We made spending reductions,” Conrad said. “Those who suggest that was not fiscally responsible — I don’t think they’re very aware of the history of how we got a Farm Bill passed.”

Conrad said that he hopes the administration understands that “accomplish[ing] big things takes compromise around here.”

Orszag acknowledged concerns over the budget and added that the budget plan represents the administration’s “best judgments.”

“We look forward to working with you,” he said.

Conrad and Gregg also pressed the Obama administration not to stick controversial bills on carbon emissions and healthcare reform in special budget reconciliation bills.

Gregg said that attaching a cap-and-trade or healthcare plan to reconciliation bills, which need only a simple majority to pass, would be an “outright act of violence” against the Senate, where most contentious legislation needs 60 votes to advance. Using the special process would also hinder the administration’s ability to win votes from centrist GOP senators such as Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), who has supported limits on carbon emissions in the past, Gregg said.

Orszag, however, didn’t rule out the use of reconciliation bills.

“We would prefer not to start there, but we’re not taking anything off the table at this point,” he said.
Gregg, who nearly joined Obama’s administration as Commerce secretary, also criticized the president’s budget plan for failing to include enough detail. The Republican, who withdrew his nomination over ideological differences with Obama, counted three questions that Orszag deferred answers on until a more detailed budget proposal was unveiled next month.

Orszag said that first-year administrations usually put forth a budget outline that they later fill in, but Gregg said lawmakers want more information soon.

“I would think it would be incomplete if you’re not going to put the meat on the bones before you have the votes,” he said.

From http://thehill.com/