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Only battleground, not common ground, in budget wars

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Source: USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Most Americans say they want President Obama and a divided Congress to compromise on major issues, but competing budget proposals out this week from House Republicans and Senate Democrats underscore why it’s so hard to find.

House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., unveiled a fiscal blueprint Tuesday that includes proposals with almost no Democratic support, including the elimination of President Obama’s health care law, fundamental changes to Medicare for future retirees and $4.6 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade affecting programs such as food stamps and college grants while protecting defense spending from the budget ax. In the GOP budget, the federal government would stop spending more than it takes in by 2023.

Senate Democrats plan to release a competing budget Wednesday that includes about $1 trillion in new revenues from closing tax loopholes for corporations and the rich, despite widespread GOP opposition to any new taxes after the January deal that raised $620 billion from wealthy Americans.

“The truth is that (Democrats) can’t ever tax the American people enough to pay for their sky-rocketed levels of spending that they want,” said Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., a senior member of the House Budget panel.

According to initial Senate budget details, their plan also includes about $1 trillion in spending cuts, which is far below the threshold Republicans are seeking for deficit reduction It also proposes a $100 billion stimulus plan for new spending on the nation’s infrastructure and no structural changes to Medicare. It is the first budget Democrats have offered since 2009.

“It shows the gulf we have to bridge is just as big as ever,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., the senior Democrat on the House Budget Committee, on the prospect for a sizable budget deal this year. Van Hollen gave Congress a late summer deadline to find common ground before election year politics begin to creep in. It is also when Congress will have to again vote to increase the nation’s borrowing limit.

There is almost no chance for the House and Senate to reconcile their competing budgets. Both plans are non-binding and do not have the force of law but serve as the philosophical springboard for lawmaking. Each chamber is scheduled to approve the budget plans next week on what is likely to be party-line votes.

Obama’s budget won’t arrive on Capitol Hill until April 8. The White House has said the unprecedented delay is partly because budget writers were tied up with negotiations over the year-end “fiscal cliff” deal.

However, Washington remains in the thick of talks to address $1.2 trillion in automatic, across-the-board spending cuts over the next decade that kicked in March 1. The president is trying to replace the cuts, known as the sequester, with a targeted package that includes cuts and new revenues. So far, compromise has been elusive. Congress is working to approve a spending bill to fund the government and allow for more flexibility in implementing the cuts in the meantime.

Four private meetings are scheduled on Capitol Hill this week between Obama and lawmakers in both parties. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was candid about the prospects for compromise. “There’s not even conversation going on with the president and others, other than trying to show everybody how nice he is,” he said, of the president’s intensified personal outreach to Republicans.

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.


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