Democratic Perspective on the United States Senate Budget

By: Jayzelle Jahanzeb

(Image courtesy of the United States Senate/Senate.gov)

The Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 granted the formation of the United States Senate Budget Committee which controls budget expenses and forms responsible budget plans. The difference in priorities between the Republican and Democratic parties results in disputes about how government spending in the Senate and the House of Representatives should be distributed. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives have been discussing government debt and long term solutions to the debt. However, the democratic perspectives on the Budget of the Senate differentiate from those of the republicans.

Regarding governmental debt and the prevention of shutting the government down, Democrats are mainly focused on the well-being of the citizens. For example, the recently appointed speaker Mike Johnson ́́s short term funding bill was supported by Top Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer. According to Reuters, Schumer addresses that, "The Speaker's proposals far from perfect, but the most important thing is that it refrains from making steep cuts while avoiding a costly government shutdown" (Warburton 5). By a top democrat supporting a republican, the other democratic senators will follow and support the plan. The democrats are willing to support a plan that does not represent their best interests, but rather will provide stability for the people for a short period of time unlike the few strong conservatives who rejected this plan due to the lack of extreme budget cuts.

(Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer from Reuters)

Senator Schumer also reflects on the fact that the Democratic section of the Senate promotes bipartisanship, which describes the cooperative efforts between opposing political parties such as the Republican and Democratic parties. He claims that bipartisanship will protect the country from a government shutdown. Democrats such as Schumer believe that preventing a government shutdown due to the lack of funding from the Budget is the greatest priority.

A few months prior, Democrats were still promoting the idea of bipartisanship, even with McCarthy as speaker. Republicans were struggling with a having a collective vote due to a few extreme conservatives who desire extreme conditions on bills, therefore resulting in the rejection of plans. This issue still continues with new speaker Mike Johnson. However, according to Axios, Democrats want to "pressure McCarthy to seek bipartisan solutions." While the Republicans have been focusing on their beliefs being represented, Democrats believe the best solution to the issue of the Senate Budget is for both parties to develop a solution that prevents the major closure of many government businesses or activities rather than the Republican approach of wanting to make certain members happy in order to obtain their votes.

(Senator Chuck Schumer in a Conference on November 14 from Roll Call)

For the time being, bipartisan support is demonstrated within the stopgap spending measure that was passed in order to prevent the government shutdown. The stopgap bill allows for the funding of specific agencies until either January 19 or February 2 depending on their purpose. The democratic support allowed for the passing of the bill and prevented the government shutdown. Therefore, the democrats achieved their goal regarding budgeting for a short period of time to allow for further discussions on government spending and how money is distributed to different sections of the government such as agriculture and military.

Democrats in the Senate have been primarily focused on preventing government shutdowns during the holiday season and ensuring the well-being of the people by preventing harmful effects of the Senate budgeting issue on the people. By using bipartisan theology, they were able to come to a short term agreement on budgeting and allowed republicans to recognize that they need democratic support if they continue to have dispersed motives within their own party.