Dems, GOP split on president's proposed budget freeze

Interest in President Barack Obama's plan to freeze most discretionary spending for the next three years has already divided Senate lawmakers on party lines.

Both Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.) signaled Tuesday they could support a budget that capped non-defense expenditures at current levels.

"I haven't looked at the specific proposal, but I'll tell you, as a senator, as a leader, this country needs to get its  fiscal house in order," Landrieu told reporters. "And there are going to have to be tough measures taken on all sides; everyone is going to have to step up and do what we need to do to bring fiscal constraint."

Klobuchar later added she felt similarly. "I'm also supportive of this, and I will also say I'm glad [the president] is supporting the commission," she told reporters.

But a handful of Republicans, including Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), have stressed the measure is likely to be too lenient to do the job.

"It's not a freeze if it doesn't cut inflation," Gregg said, referencing the likelihood that the White House's freeze would adjust every year for inflation.

Graham, additionally, described the plan as "a little gimmicky," though he did say the plan could be "welcome news to the American public.

Obama's plan, announced Wednesday, arrives as criticism of the $1.3 trillion federal deficit has reached a fever pitch.

Lawmakers from both parties have hammered each other and the White House for months now, hoping to demonstrate their commitments to fiscal discipline ahead of a tough set of midterm elections that seem to pivot greatly on the economy.

Obama's proposed freeze would save about $250 billion over the next three years, White House officials said Monday. But those projected savings have hardly functioned as an early selling point among GOP members, who say Democrats spent far more than that in just a year.

But Democrats seemed to fire back pre-emptiely at that line of reasoning. "Ironic that they are being critical of our efforts to freeze spending in the accounts that they almost doubled," one White House administration official said Monday.

Landrieu on Tuesday also said the previous administration was to blame for many of the current administration's budget difficulties.

"We've had to dig out of a hole not created by [President Obama], but created by the previous administration," she said. "And so it's going to be very difficult, but I think we've got to be open to all suggestions."

---