Senate Democrats proposed a short-term budget on Tuesday that would keep federal spending at current levels, setting up a showdown with House Republicans that increases the possibility of a government shutdown as the GOP presses ahead with plans for steep budget cuts. “Right now we are seeing a high-stakes game of chicken being played out by Republicans in the House and Democrats in the Senate,” Brian Darling, director of government relations at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, told The Washington Examiner.
Government funding runs out on March 4, when a stopgap spending measure is set to expire. Congress does not return to session until Feb. 28, leaving just five days for the two parties to work out a deal.
Right now, the two sides couldn’t be further apart.
Democrats stepped up the political pressure on House Republicans Tuesday, accusing the GOP of rejecting an offer to negotiate a compromise budget as the deadline approaches. Democrats have proposed a 30-day budget at current spending levels, which they say would give them time to negotiate a long-term plan in which they would be willing to negotiate cuts.
“They are refusing to come to the table at all,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told reporters on Tuesday.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. called the offer “an olive branch” for Republicans, though he declined to name specific cuts his party would be willing to make.
Republicans say the Democrats are the ones refusing to negotiate and accused them of playing political games by proposing a short-term plan that does not include any cuts.
House Republicans voted in the predawn hours on Saturday to pass a budget funding the final seven months of the fiscal year that slashes $61.5 billion in spending. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, warned that if the Senate does not accept their legislation, they would not take up any shorter, stopgap spending measure without including cuts.
According to GOP sources, Republicans in the House are considering a short-term measure that would last a few weeks and would include cuts proportional to those included in the longer-term spending plan the GOP passed on Saturday.
“Republicans are happy to talk about how we can listen to the American people and cut government spending,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel told The Examiner. “Sens. Reid and Schumer are insisting that we can’t cut one penny — and that’s just indefensible.”
Republicans have little choice but to push forward on reductions after promising during the 2010 campaign that they would cut $100 billion in spending this year. With just seven months left in the fiscal year, the party is running out of budget time to reach that goal.
Schumer on Tuesday warned Republicans against a repeat of 1995, when House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., was largely blamed for a government shutdown that caused political damage to the GOP.
Schumer said he believes Boehner “is being misled and pushed around by conservative freshmen who don’t remember what happened in 1995.”
