Capitol Hill Republicans were downright giddy earlier this year when they forced Senate Democrats into agreeing to pass a formal budget resolution for the first time in four years.

Now Senate Democrats are trying to turn the tables on Republicans, demanding that the GOP allow the budget process to move forward by naming negotiators to hammer out a formal budget accord with the House.

T.J. Kirkpatrick / Getty Images

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., sought Tuesday morning to name 12 senators -- seven Democrats, five Republicans -- to a formal legislative "conference," the process which takes place when the House and Senate pass different versions of the same measure (in this case, a budget resolution).

"They're no longer interested in regular order, even though they preached that for years," said Reid, referring to the slow-moving, formal legislative management process for which many Republican leaders have clamored. "They don't want to go to conference and work things out. They don't even want to name conferees."

Reid added: "It seems House Republicans don't want to be seen discussing even the possibility of compromise with Democrats, for fear that there will be a Tea Party revolt."

Republicans counter that moving toward a former conference process usually involves some level of pre-negotiation that lays the groundwork for an eventual agreement.

"To go to conference right now strikes us as not making much sense," explained Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., following a lunch with fellow Republicans.

And while House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, described ongoing conversations between his chief budgetary lieutenant, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, and Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., the speaker echoed McConnell in resisting a conference.

Although budget resolutions are often a political exercise -- more often, they represent the priorities of a party than any serious attempt at governing -- Democrats are now trying to seize the initiative on the topic.

House Republicans for years pummeled the Senate Democratic leadership for failing to pass a budget, pointing to the lack of one as a sign of fiscal recklessness. (Reid has said there was no need to pass an overarching budget, given the various fiscal agreements that govern spending levels.)

The House GOP's canard earlier this year, in which they tied a three-month extension in the debt limit to the Senate passing a budget (or endure a pay forfeiture otherwise), was designed to exploit that very lack of a budget.

Democrats are now trying to turn that political maneuvering back against Republicans.

"If the Republicans are serious about reducing the deficit, we need to get to work -- get to work sooner, rather than later," Reid said.

This story was originally published on Tue Apr 23, 2013 3:45 PM EDT

President Barack Obama will stick to his forthcoming budget on Wednesday, and does not regard it as a "starting point" for negotiations with Republicans toward a fiscal deal.

The administration's 2014 budget — which Obama will introduce at 11:15 a.m. on Wednesday — seeks an additional $1.8 trillion in savings through a combination of new revenues, entitlement reforms and targeted cuts to discretionary spending. The budget contains spending adding up to $3.77 trillion.

And while GOP lawmakers have expressed skepticism toward Obama's new budget, particularly for its inclusion of new taxes, the White House argued Tuesday in previewing the announcement that Republicans shouldn't be so dismissive.

"We don't view this budget as a starting point in the negotiations," one senior administration official said on a conference call previewing the budget. "This is an offer where the president came more than halfway."

“The question is, are Republicans willing to come to us?” the official asked, saying that the administration would be "sticking" to its position.

"If they refuse to include revenues in any deal, then there will be no deal. it's that simple."

Obama offered a change in how Social Security benefits increase over time (so-called "chained CPI") in hopes of drawing Republicans into begrudging agreement on proposals to raise new revenue. Among those revenue-raising provisions were:

• Enacting the so-called "Buffett Rule," which would require households making over $1 million to pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes
• Limiting tax deductions to up to 28 percent of income for the top 2 percent of earners in the United States
• Expanding a tax credit for middle-class families to pay for child care
• Funding universal preschool, something Obama called for in his State of the Union address, through an increase in the federal tax on cigarettes and other tobacco products
• Establishing of a National Infrastructure Bank, which in April 2013 Obama said could raise $10 billion, with each federal dollar leveraging up to $20 in total investment 
• Paying for the launch of 15 “manufacturing innovation institutes,” whose $1 billion price tag was first floated during the State of the Union 

This story was originally published on Wed Apr 10, 2013 6:31 AM EDT

The House of Representatives successfully passed Republicans' 2014 budget on Thursday with four votes to spare, relying only upon GOP votes to advance Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan's third budget blueprint.

The House voted 221-207, largely along party lines, to advance the budget for the next government fiscal year. The plan seeks to balance the budget within a decade, primarily by saving $4.6 trillion through cuts to spending, and reforms to Medicare that would transform the plan into a "premium support" (or voucher) system.

Ten Republicans joined with Democrats, all of whom opposed the Ryan budget, to vote against the plan. Due to the defections, Republicans only passed their budget by an extra margin of four votes. Ten Republicans also opposed last year's budget, though there were 241 total GOP members of the House last year, versus 232 sitting Republicans at the time of today's vote.

The budget is the third passed by Republicans since retaking the House in the 2010 elections. But like the two preceding budgets, Ryan's 2014 fiscal blueprint will likely never become law, due to opposition from both the president and Senate Democrats.

The House moved quickly following the budget vote to pass legislation settling spending levels for the rest of this fiscal year, which concludes at the end of September.

The House voted 318-109 with bipartisan support to pass a continuing resolution funding the government through that date, averting a government shutdown that would have occurred at the end of March if spending authority had run out. The Senate passed that legislation on Wednesday, and it now heads to the White House for President Barack Obama's signature, once he returns from a foreign trip to Israel.

The Senate passed legislation on Wednesday to fund the United States through the end of September, making a big step toward averting a threatened government at the end of this month.

Senators voted 73 to 26 to approve the bipartisan budget legislation, which provides just over $1 trillion in budget authority, a level of spending which reflects the spending cuts stipulated by the budget sequester that took effect at the beginning of March.

Consideration of this Senate bill – known as a “continuing resolution,” or “CR” – had stalled in recent weeks due to objections from conservative Republicans who said they wanted to read the bill and offer amendments. Democrats finally struck an agreement with Republicans on those amendments on Wednesday, allowing a final vote on passing the spending package to move forward.

The legislation now heads to the Republican-controlled House, which could take up the bill as soon as Thursday. Though the GOP had already passed its own version of the CR from the House, indications point toward passage of the Senate version. The law would then head to the White House for President Barack Obama’s signature.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had threatened late evenings and weekend work – potentially through the Senate’s upcoming holiday recess to complete both the CR and work on Democrats’ first budget in four years.

After staving off a shutdown, lawmakers will next turn toward reconciling their different budget proposals ahead of a mid-May deadline to extend the nation’s borrowing authority. Immigration reform and proposed new restrictions on firearms also sit atop Congress’s springtime agenda.

Republicans set the stage for this spring's fiscal battles by readying the debut of their new budget blueprint on Tuesday, which they said would achieve $4.6 trillion in savings and balance the U.S. budget within a decade. 

Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., argued that his forthcoming budget — the third he's authored as chairman of the House Budget Committee — would be able to achieve a balanced budget by 2023, and boost the gross national product by as much as 1.7 percent in the meanwhile. 

The plan is unlikely to ever become law in its entirety; it assumes a repeal of President Barack Obama's health care reform law, and collects no new revenue from taxes, two elements which are unpalatable to Democrats. 

But budgets are often more political statements about a party's priorities than a hard governing blueprint. With that in mind, Ryan, the 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee, sought to inoculate Republicans from criticism of the budget, and play offense against Democrats' forthcoming budget. 

"Our opponents will shout austerity, but let's put this in perspective," Ryan wrote in an op-ed to be published in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal. "On the current path, spending will increase by 5 percent each year. Under our proposal, it will increase by 3.4 percent. Because the U.S. economy will grow faster than spending, the budget will balance by 2023, and debt held by the public will drop to just over half the size of the economy."

Ryan was set to detail his full plan in a press conference on Tuesday morning, but his op-ed contained key elements of the budget. Ryan's plan would:

• Achieve a total of $4.6 trillion in savings over the next decade
• Enact tax reform that closes loopholes and deductions, while reducing the number of income brackets to two — one at 10 percent, the other at 25 percent
• Change Medicare to a model in which future retirees would receive "premium supports" (Democrats call them vouchers) to subsidize the purchase of insurance from a menu of options, including traditional Medicare
• Repeal the president's health care reform law
• Approve the proposed Keystone XL transnational oil pipeline
• Enact welfare reforms to give states more flexibility in enforcing the program

There are other aspects of Ryan's plan that the Wisconsin congressman will outline tomorrow. Many elements of the new Ryan budget are familiar Republican proposals, weaved together in a comprehensive statement of governing principles. 

The new budget, however, is only the opening salvo in a budget battle that could stretch throughout much of the spring. Congress acted earlier this year to extend the debt limit through mid-May, but only on the condition that the House and the Senate each pass a budget. The Senate budget, authored by Democrats, and their first in years, is also due this week.

And the political fighting over the dueling proposals has already begun. 

"I hate to break the suspense, but their budget won't balance—ever," Ryan wrote. "We House Republicans have done our part … Now we invite the president and Senate Democrats to join in the effort."

The House passed legislation on Wednesday amid a wintry storm in Washington to avert a government shutdown, and keep the government running through the summer. 

The Republican-held chamber voted 267 to 151 to approve a continuing resolution and pull the United States back from the brink of a government shutdown on March 27, when current day-to-day funding is set to expire. Fifty-three Democrats joined with the bulk of Republicans to approve the legislation.

Recommended: Obama to meet with Senate, House GOP

The maneuver by the House could be a crucial first step toward avoiding a government shutdown this month, though it was not clear whether the GOP proposal would sail through the Senate.

"Today the House has taken the first step towards assuring the American people that the federal government will stay open, which President Obama agrees should be our shared goal," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement. "The Senate should pass the House measure without delay so we can continue focusing on helping Americans get back to work and putting the country on a path to a balanced budget.”

Consideration of the "CR" was sped up to Wednesday afternoon to accommodate a winter storm that had affected Washington, D.C. and its surrounding areas. The vote capped an abbreviated work week for lawmakers in the House.

President Barack Obama said last Friday that the continuing resolution was "the right thing to do to make sure that we don't have a government shutdown." His administration formally released a statement on Tuesday expressing its concerns with the Republican bill, though it stopped short of threatening a veto.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Tuesday that Democrats would produce their own bill to fund the government, with a goal of reaching a final resolution before Congress's Easter recess beginning March 22.

The legislation would extend funding for the government, at existing levels, through the end of the U.S. government's fiscal year — that is, through the end of September. The funding level, though, is subject to the automatic spending cuts, "sequestration," that sprung into effect last Friday. 

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The continuing resolution also contains language meant to deal with some of the most severe aspects of the sequester, which mandates indiscriminate, across-the-board cuts to different parts of the federal budget. The Republican proposal would give the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs more flexibility to reallocate funds in their budgets to avoid some of the harshest consequences of sequestration.

More significantly, this move on Wednesday by the House would seem to end the series of miniature fiscal crises which took the U.S. to the brink of calamity on numerous occasions over the past few years. The onset of sequestration on March 1 and the last-minute resolution on higher taxes for the wealthy on Jan. 1 of this year are only the most recent examples of high-profile fiscal battles on Capitol Hill.

Several other fiscal battles await Congress later this spring, though. Both the House and Senate have vowed to approve formal budgets for the forthcoming fiscal year, and Obama is due to produce his own budget soon. Those budgets are tied into a needed extension of the nation's debt limit, which has been suspended through mid-May. An agreement to extract Republican votes for an increase in the debt ceiling will likely hinge on what, if any, consensus lawmakers can reach on taxes, spending and entitlements.

This story was originally published on Wed Mar 6, 2013 2:04 PM EST

As Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., plans to unveil his new budget next Tuesday, the House Budget Committee chairman said he had spoken this week with President Barack Obama, who's been ramping up outreach to congressional Republicans.

Ryan told Capitol Hill reporters on Wednesday that he had recently spoken to Obama by phone, though the former Republican vice presidential nominee declined to divulge specifics from the "confidential" conversation. Ryan said he told Obama that "we need to prepare for the retirement of the baby boom generation in this country to save these programs, for not just for the current retirees but for the next wave of retirees after that."

The call from Obama would seem to fit with the recent charm offensive for Republicans being waged by the White House. The administration confirmed Wednesday that Obama would address the House and Senate GOP conferences next week, and the president will dine this evening with a handful of Republican senators.

Recommended: Obama to meet with Senate, House GOP

Despite the recent conversation with the president, Ryan still took the opportunity to slam him for the Obama administration's own delay releasing its own budget.

"I find it interesting that he's chosen to blow the deadline again — not by a week or two, but for a indefinite period of time," he said. "The White House ought to lead, that's what presidents do. A delay does not show seriousness of purpose."

The Wisconsin congressman's remarks set the stage for this spring's budget battles; the House and Senate have each vowed to produce and pass a budget as part of an agreement last month to extend the nation's debt limit through mid-May. While that's expected to be a hard-fought debate, Ryan insisted he had "hope" both sides could "start talking to each other and start solving these problems."

The new House GOP budget will be unveiled on Tuesday of next week. Ryan declined to outline hard numbers from his fiscal blueprint, explaining that those will be revealed when the budget is formerly introduced. Though he's pledged his new budget would balance the U.S. books by 2023, Ryan said there would not be big differences between this year's budgets and past budgets he has produced.

"It doesn't take enormous changes in our budget to get there and you'll see what they are," Ryan said.

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Democrats have used those past budgets, though, against Republican lawmakers who eventually vote for it. The first budget produced by Ryan in 2011 and its proposed reforms to Medicare became a lightning rod during the 2012 campaign, both on the presidential campaign trail and in scores of House and Senate races. Democrats will carefully comb through Ryan's new budget for any additional provisions of controversy, though Republicans will also be able to pore over the budget that Senate Democrats will have to produce this spring.

One concrete detail offered by Ryan was that the new GOP budget would not rely upon a budget baseline that does not count as savings either the draw down of the war in Afghanistan, or less disaster aid once the Hurricane Sandy relief is paid.

"We're not going to be in Afghanistan for 10 more years…we had a huge hurricane, biggest one since '05, are we going to have a hurricane like that every year? CBO says so in their baseline," the budget chairman explained.

The Congressional Budget Office projects the cost of current programs for the next decade, Ryan's argument is that Democrats can't count the reduction of those programs as savings when they will know they will not exist within 10 years. 

This story was originally published on Wed Mar 6, 2013 1:42 PM EST

With the sequester deadline in the rear-view mirror, House Democrats are staking out their positions in the next budget battle over keeping the government’s lights on after a March deadline.

Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, told reporters Tuesday that she's recommending that her fellow Democrats vote against the GOP-drafted short-term federal budget bill.

Alex Wong / Getty Images file photo

Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee.

“I'm an optimist,” Lowey said. “I'm hoping that we can end this process with a continuing resolution that makes sense, because Democrats care about reducing the deficit but they don't believe that a sequester is the appropriate way to do it..”

Democrats like Lowey plan to oppose Republicans’ “continuing resolution,” which would fund the government through September 30^th of this year, because it would reduce overall spending due to the across-the-board budget cuts activated by last week’s sequestration order.

They also say that the GOP plan to offer budget flexibility only to defense-related federal agencies is unfair to other programs.

Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., who wrangles the Democratic votes in the House, said Tuesday that he is not actively instructing his caucus to vote against the legislation "at this point."

But, with Democratic leaders vocally opposing the GOP measure, it’s clear that it will only pick up a handful of Democratic votes when the bill comes to the House floor this week. (The bill was originally slated for consideration Thursday, but lawmakers now expect to address it earlier due to expected inclement weather. 

The White House said Tuesday that it is "deeply concerned about the impact" of the GOP bill but did not specifically threaten a veto if it passes.

Republicans are confident that they will be able to pass this bill without help from across the aisle, something they've had a problem doing in the past with major bills.

In particular, the conservative bloc of House Republicans seems to accept the CR as being in line with the spending levels that they believe were agreed upon based on the sequester's cuts.

"At the end of the day it's still the number we agreed on, so we're satisfied with that," Rep Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) said. 

Huelskamp added he would like to include some provision related to President Obama's health care law, but said the $982 billion government spending level for the 2013 fiscal year would be considered a "win" for conservatives.

NBC's Carrie Dann contributed to this report.

This story was originally published on Tue Mar 5, 2013 2:47 PM EST

This story was originally published on Tue Mar 5, 2013 1:49 PM EST

Even Members of Congress aren't immune to sequestration.

In a letter sent to members of Congress Monday, the House Administration Committee instructed offices to cut their budgets by 8.2% to reflect the across-the-board federal spending cuts that were triggered last week.  

The cuts shouldn't come as a surprise to congressional offices. Members were warned in a separate letter last year that a budget reduction could be put into effect if sequestration was not averted.

"Although sequestration isn't the ideal way to reduce government spending, it is now the law and Congress is not, and should not be, immune," House Administration Committee Chair Candice Miller, R-Mich., said in a statement. “To the contrary, we should continue to lead by example and do our part to get this country on a fiscally sustainable path."

This story was originally published on Mon Mar 4, 2013 5:07 PM EST

In an exclusive interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, House Speaker John Boehner said there is no easy way to stop the budget cuts -- known as the “sequester” -- that began taking effect Friday night, and voiced uncertainty over how Washington can solve the overall fiscal problems that have consumed the nation’s politics for more than two years.

“I don't think anyone quite understands how it gets resolved,” Boehner admitted in his interview with NBC’s David Gregory.

Boehner explained his strategy in the Republicans’ tax-and-spending standoff with President Barack Obama, saying that he didn’t want to “arbitrarily pull out a couple of tax expenditures” just to raise the revenue needed to avert $85 billion in spending cuts which are being made this year.

The president and many of his administration officials have warned of dire consequences to government services and national security if the sequester happens as planned.  But to avoid them and reach a deal, the president wants new tax increases, something Boehner and his fellow Republicans have insisted are off the table.

The spending cuts – which were intended to spur a bipartisan “grand bargain” on deficit reduction, entitlement reform and tax increases -- are part of the 2011 Budget Control Act which Obama signed into law.

Boehner voted for the law and urged his members to do likewise.

But now that the spending cuts are beginning, neither Boehner nor Obama wants them to continue. Yet they have been unable to reach an accord on an alternative measure.

Related: As meeting yields no breakthrough, Obama blames 'dumb' cuts on GOP, signs order

Larry Downing / Reuters

Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, speaks briefly after a meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House March 1, 2013.

Boehner insisted that Obama should abandon his effort to get more tax increases and instead focus on spending.

“Every American, in these tough economic times, has to find a way to balance their budget. They've got to make choices,” Boehner said. “They expect Washington to live within its means and to make choices as well.”  

He said, “It's time for the president and Senate Democrats to get serious about the long-term spending problem that we have.”

And he noted that if Obama has a credible alternative to the sequester, “why wouldn't Senate Democrats go ahead and pass it?”

Obama has insisted that any plan to replace the sequester must include new tax increases, for example by changing the tax treatment of corporate jets, and by ending tax preferences for oil and gas producers.

But Boehner said Obama had already gotten his tax increase in the deal that he made with Republicans in December. “The president got $650 billion of higher taxes on the American people on January the first,” Boehner said. “How much more does he want?”

Boehner did say that a comprehensive tax reform law would be a way to spark growth. That, in turn, would produce more tax revenue for the federal government.

“American family's wages aren't growing,” the House speaker said. “They're being squeezed. And as a result, we've got to find a way through our tax code to promote more economic growth in our country.  We can do this by closing loopholes, bringing the (tax) rates down for all Americans, making the tax code fairer. It will promote more economic growth.”

Obama said Friday it may take some time before members of Congress agree to bargain with him on how to replace the spending cuts.

He told reporters that he hoped that “after some reflection, as members of Congress start hearing from constituents who are being negatively impacted… that they step back and say, all right, is there a way for us to move forward on a package of entitlement reforms, tax reform, not raising tax rates, identifying programs that don't work, coming up with a plan that's comprehensive and that makes sense.”

He said, “It may take a couple of weeks. It may take a couple of months” before that happens, but in the meantime the spending cuts will dampen economic growth and hurt federal workers who are furloughed and federal contractors who lose work.

“It's going to mean hundreds of thousands of jobs lost,” he said. “That is real. We're not making that up.  That’s not a scare tactic, that’s a fact.”

But Boehner said, “I don't know whether it's going to hurt the economy or not. I don't think anyone quite understands how the sequester is really going to work.”

The speaker said the House would pass a spending plan this week to fund the government through the end of the current fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30, and that in his conversation with Obama at the White House Friday, the president had agreed “that we should not have any talk of a government shutdown. So I'm hopeful that the House and Senate will be able to work through this.”

Following Boehner on Meet the Press, Obama economic advisor Gene Sperling said Boehner ought to be willing to consider at least $400 billion more in tax revenue increases over the next ten years as part of a larger agreement on deficit reduction.

Sperling said Obama has already agreed to require higher-income Medicare recipients to pay higher premiums for their coverage than they now pay and has agreed to change the formula for Social Security benefits, which would in effect reduce benefit increases over time.

These were difficult concessions for Obama to make, Sperling said.

In the face of congressional Republicans charging that Obama and his aides have been exaggerating the effect of the spending cuts – with one House Republicans calling their effort “Scarequester” – Sperling said, “Nobody ever suggested that this harmful sequester – which the speaker himself said would be devastating to national security – was going to have all its impact in the first few days.”

But he argued that the spending reductions will “hurt a lot of communities that rely on military spending” and hurt public education.

As House Republicans begin to see the impact he said he hoped they “will choose bipartisan compromise over this absolutist position.”

He noted that on Saturday Obama made phone calls to both Democratic and GOP  senators to form a “caucus of common sense” and support an alternative to the spending cuts. 

With broad automatic federal spending cuts scheduled to go into effect in just five days, the nation's transportation chief on Sunday defended his warnings about the consequences of the cutbacks but promised that it will remain safe for Americans to fly. 

"We're not making this up in order to put pain on the American people," said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on NBC's "Meet the Press." "We are required to cut a billion dollars and we are going to do that unless Congress gets together and works together and compromises on this." 

LaHood, a former Republican congressman, warned earlier this week that the scheduled cuts to the Federal Aviation Administration would result in flight delays due to closed air traffic control towers and furloughed transportation employees.

On Sunday, he emphasized that those cuts would mean major disruptions for passengers -- but not danger. 

"We will never compromise on safety," he said.  "People are going to be safe flying." 

Many in the GOP have suggested that the Obama administration is exaggerating the impact of the across-the-board cuts, totaling $1.2 trillion over 10 years.

"My advice to the president is to stop the campaigning," Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana said on NBC. "Stop sending out your cabinet secretaries to scare the American people." 

LaHood said Sunday that the warnings are not overblown and argued that Republicans have failed to respond to the president's entreaties for compromise to avert the sequester. 

The former GOP lawmaker's harsh words for his own party were met with a fresh round of skepticism Sunday.

"Shame on Ray LaHood," Arizona Sen. John McCain declared on CNN's "State of the Union."

Pointing to reporting by Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, McCain disputed the notion that the GOP is responsible for the looming cuts originally devised as a bargaining tactic in budget negotiaitons. 

"It came from the White House and the president's aides," McCain said.