Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., acknowledged that Democrats have consistently failed to produce “a smart budget” because they feared caving to Republican entitlement reforms.

“Maybe Democrats have worked too hard to try to protect those programs from the devastating cuts and in doing so that has kept us from trying to come up with a smart budget,” Becerra, vice-chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said during a fiscal summit today. He explained that Democrats expected Republicans to “eliminate” programs such as Medicare.