By Sara Wyant
© Copyright Agri-Pulse Communications, Inc.
WASHINGTON, May 25 – The U.S. Senate rejected a budget resolution sponsored by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., that passed the House earlier this year and included major changes in future Medicare benefits.
With five Republican senators rejecting the motion to consider the House budget plan, the measure failed 40-57. Three of the Republicans senators who voted against the House plan on Wednesday are moderates from Northeastern states: Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Susan Collins, and Olympia Snowe of Maine. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska also voted “no” and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul opposed the plan because it did not do enough to reduce the federal deficit.
After the Senate voted on the House Republican Medicare plan, the Senate voted 97 to 0 to reject the budget plan originally proposed by President Obama earlier this year. In March, the president offered yet another budget plan.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-ND, cited the need for bipartisianship to craft a new budget, while defending his decision to not develop a budget resolution within his committee.
Until we see the outcome of the budget negotiations between the President and key congressional leaders “What sense would it possibly make for us to go to a markup of a budget?” Conrad asked.
“The only possibility for us to make progress is a bipartisan budget,” Conrad said on the Senate floor.
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