In yet another demonstration of how difficult it can be to cut the budget, the Senate on Thursday voted down a GOP plan to block funding for certain policy "czars" in the Obama Administration.
The vote was 51-47 against the plan from Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), who argued in vain that the Obama White House had used "czars" to get around Senate confirmation and oversight.
"We shouldn't allow any executive to end run the U.S. Constitution," said Vitter.
But all but two Democrats resisted the amendment, with critics arguing that it was nothing more than a political attempt to crack down on the right of President Obama to assemble his own staff.
As the Senate was rejecting the Vitter plan, the future of high-level talks on the budget and debt limit were on the verge of collapse, as top Republicans in those negotiations said they were pulling out, saying they would not accept demands by Democrats for tax increases.
"Tax hikes are off the table," said Speaker John Boehner, who told a news conference that he supported the decision of GOP lawmakers to walk away from the talks.
The move started a series of verbal pot shots between both parties over who would be to blame if the financial wheels come off the U.S. Government in coming weeks.
"Nobody should be playing a game of political chicken," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), as Democrats tried to cast themselves as paragons of budget virtue, while arguing that those pesky Republicans are trying to drive the country off a cliff.
As for the talks, they are on hold, as Vice President Biden last night said Democrats stand ready to start negotiations again.
Here is Biden's statement:
"Over the past several weeks, the bipartisan debt talks have made significant progress on a blueprint for putting America’s fiscal house in order. Working together in good faith, we have found many areas of common ground and potential agreement on substantial savings. As all of us at the table said at the outset, the goal of these talks was to report our findings back to our respective leaders. The next phase is in the hands of those leaders, who need to determine the scope of an agreement that can tackle the problem and attract bipartisan support. For now the talks are in abeyance as we await that guidance. We stand ready to meet again as necessary.
As the President and I have made clear from the beginning, the only way to make sure we begin to live within our means is by coming together behind a balanced approach that finds real savings across the budget – including domestic spending, defense spending, mandatory spending, and loopholes in the tax code. We all need to make sacrifices, and that includes the most fortunate among us.
I continue to be grateful to my fellow negotiators for taking on this formidable challenge. We have made real headway and laid the groundwork to get this done. We owe it to the American people to take every responsible step to do right by our economy and the nation’s future.
Would the czars live in a final budget deal? Depends on which party you ask.
