Chairman Conrad Rejects President Obama’s Budget
Wednesday, March 25th, 2009It isn’t often that Democrats oppose the first budget a Democratic president submits but that’s exactly what’s happening. Kent Conrad is leading the opposition to President Obama’s budget:
Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota said the Senate Budget Committee, which he chairs, will vote on his version Wednesday.
“We’ve made hundreds of billions of dollars of changes to make this work to get down to the deficit goal and at the same time maintain the president’s priorities, education and energy and health care,” Conrad said as he left a closed meeting in the Capitol, where he briefed Senate Democratic colleagues on his plan.
Conrad and other centrist Democratic senators, whose support is critical to passing the legislation, have raised concerns about the long-term impact of the president’s spending plan on the deficit.
Sen. Conrad is doing President Obama a favor in rewriting the budget. President Obama’s budget wouldn’t have garnered the votes needed to pass. Had that happened, a serious case could’ve been made that that defeat was a no confidence vote against President Obama.
That would’ve been political disaster for President Obama. With his approval ratings on a steady decline, President Obama couldn’t have taken such a hit. Right now, his personal popularity is significantly higher than is support for his radical policies. (more…)