Economics/Trade

GOP Sens. Susan Collins, Dean Heller, Mike Lee, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz voted with Democrats against Ryan's plan.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced that the Senate would begin votes while it continues debating the resolution.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Thursday that he would offer an amendment to the budget that would target offshore tax havens utilized by U.S. corporations.

Sanders said his amendment would create a reserve fund by collecting taxes on the offshore accounts and use that new revenue to reduce the deficit and invest in job creation.

Sen. Max Baucus said a budget amendment that would empower states to tax online purchases is "premature."

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said he would introduce amendments to the Senate budget resolution that would prohibit tax increases on the middle class.

“This budget talks about raising taxes,” Rubio said Thursday during debate on the Democrats’ budget proposal. “You can tax the richest people 100 percent and you will not solve this deficit problem. And what happens when you run out of rich people to raise taxes on? You have to tax the middle class.”

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said Thursday that under the House Republican budget “there is no more Medicare.”

The House passed a budget plan from House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) Thursday afternoon on a 221-207 vote. His plan would balance the budget over 10 years by cutting $5.7 trillion in projected spending.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the Democrats’ budget proposal continues policies that “pummel” the middle class.

“The budget we waited four years for is just a rehash of the extreme policies that continue to pummel, pummel the middle class,” McConnell said on the Senate floor Thursday. “It’s time to grow the economy, not the government.”

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) started the amendment process of the budget Thursday morning, by proposing a motion to recommit the bill to the Budget Committee in order to ensure it balances spending.

“I do have a motion to recommit this budget to the committee with instructions that it be altered to be a balanced budget,” Sessions said on the Senate floor Thursday morning. “I think that’s what the American people want.”

After more than five hours of debate on the budget resolution, the Senate adjourned Wednesday night.

The Senate will resume debate on the budget at 9 a.m. on Thursday and will continue for another 34 hours of debate since 50 hours is required unless an agreement to yield back time is reached.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said he doesn’t see how Democrats can come up with nearly $1 trillion-worth in tax expenditures that they’d be willing to vote for.

“The numbers that they think they can raise revenue from — $1 trillion — are not going to work,” Grassley said on the Senate floor Wednesday night. “It just isn’t politically possible for them to do it unless they vote in a way they’ve never voted before.”