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Thune: Ryan plan would likely divide Senate Republicans
A Senate GOP leader said Tuesday that Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) budget proposal would likely divide Republicans in the upper chamber.
Sen. John Thune (S.D.), chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, said he supports Ryan's push to lower the $1.047 trillion spending cap contained in August's bipartisan debt-ceiling deal, but other Senate Republicans would probably fight to keep that level intact.
"We all know how caps operate, but if we can actually do better than that [$1.047 trillion], we ought to look at doing better than that," Thune told reporters in the Capitol. "So I think you'll probably find a good amount of support among some Republicans, at least, in the Senate for that approach, and maybe some others who would want to stay with the numbers in the Budget Control Act."
"But," he added, "I suspect there will be amendments offered on the floor by Republicans to get closer to where the House numbers are."
Released Tuesday, Ryan's budget plan would set a $1.028 trillion discretionary spending cap – $19 billion below the $1.047 trillion limit set by last summer’s debt-ceiling deal. The proposal has been criticized from two sides, with Democrats arguing the Republicans are hacking away at the August agreement and some conservatives saying Ryan didn't cut low enough.
"It's difficult to comprehend that … the Republicans in the House want more fight," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, ranking member of the Budget Committee, said he "strongly supports" the Ryan bill. The Alabama Republican said the debt agreement was a bad deal for Republicans from the start, characterizing it as "a compromise at the 11th hour" that "did not go nearly far enough to put the country on a sustainable path financially."
"It would be unthinkable to suggest we couldn't spend less than that [$1.047 trillion]," Sessions said.
Sessions rejected the Democrats' argument that the debt deal should have been binding through 2013.
"A bill is only good," he said, "until Congress passes another one."
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