Now that Senate Democrats have forced a pointless vote on Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget plan this afternoon, it’s worth taking a look back at the time (long ago) when they actually claimed to be serious about passing a budget:
Gearing up for negotiations with Congress over his proposed budget, President Obama chided Republican lawmakers Monday for opposing his initiatives without offering alternatives.
“I do think that the Republican Party right now hasn’t sort of figured out what it’s for,” Obama said in a White House interview with The Courier-Journal and reporters from five other newspapers. “And so as a proxy, they’ve just decided ‘we’re going to be against whatever the other side is for.’ That’s not what’s needed in an economic crisis.”
The old Obama attacked the GOP for being the party of no ideas, and now the new Obama is attacking the GOP for proposing changes to the unsustainable status quo.
Democrats will now ramp up this criticism against the majority of Senate Republicans who voted for the Ryan plan today. Even though the budget vote failed (as was expected) the GOP managed to hold it together, with only five members opposing the plan: Sen. Susan Collins, Sen. Olympia Snowe, Sen. Scott Brown, Sen. Lisa Murkowsky, and Sen. Rand Paul.
Public opinion on Ryan’s budget plan is still shifting, and the GOP hopes to have an opportunity to still win that debate. Putting up a unified front like they did today is an important first step.
