Three leading Republican rivals for the White House have started a fight over spending.
The first round, and there will be many more in their battle for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, was fought last week on the Senate floor.
When the dust settled, Marco Rubio, Fla., was the only one to support his party’s budget resolution.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina voted with him, but he is not considered a leading contender.
Two more potent rivals, Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky, positioned themselves in the opposite corner ready to throw punches.
Both voted against final passage of the budget resolution, which sets spending levels that the appropriations committees use as a guide. The Senate plan must still be melded with the $3.8 trillion blueprint approved by House Republicans. Cruz and Paul were the only two Republicans to vote against the Senate budget proposal.
“Given the gravity of the debt facing our children and grandchildren, I believe that Americans expect us to do more. We need meaningful entitlement reforms, without budget gimmicks, and I cannot support a budget that claims to balance in the year 2025 by utilizing revenue increases generated by Obamacare taxes,” Cruz said in a statement.
As the 2016 campaign unfolds, fiscal policy issues will loom large. Despite an improving economy, the GOP base worries about the federal deficit and national debt. So the senators’ budget votes served as a proxy for the primary fight to come.
Rubio, elected in 2010 with Tea Party support, usually votes against consensus fiscal measures saying they don’t do enough to cut the size of the government and national debt.
His conservative voting record has earned a lifetime score of 93 percent from the Club for Growth and 89 percent from Heritage Action for America. But his vote for the Senate GOP’s 2016 budget pointed to his willingness to go with the flow for the sake of other policy priorities.
He explained his vote, saying, “We passed a budget that doesn’t raise taxes, provides an action plan to eventually repeal ObamaCare, and begins making significant reductions to the massive debt Democrats and Republicans alike have created in recent decades. The budget also includes two measures I fought for, one to ensure funding is available to relocate America’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, as well as the ‘Student Right To Know Before You Go Act,’ which gives students and parents more information to help them make wise financial decisions when pursuing higher education.”
He and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., sponsored an amendment to spend more on defense than the level specified in the Senate GOP’s 2016 budget resolution. It was defeated in a floor vote. Cruz supported it, while it was opposed by Paul.
In both the House and Senate, Republicans used an accounting trick to increase military spending without busting mandatory budget caps. They added money to a special war fund and proposed no corresponding cuts elsewhere. Paul called this a gimmick and proposed raising military spending but offsetting the increase with cuts elsewhere.
Cruz and Rubio opposed this idea.
“First and foremost, a strong national defense should always be the federal government’s main responsibility. I believe Congress can and should pay for our top priorities and not use budgeting gimmicks to evade spending limits,” Paul said in a statement.
Cruz announced his presidential campaign on March 23. Paul and Rubio are expected to follow suit on April 7 and April 13, respectively. As each vies for support in the GOP primary, arguments over their votes on the Senate floor are expected.
