On verge of budget fight, Obama visits Congress

President Obama speaks as House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., look on during a meeting with bipartisan group of congressional leaders in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on November 16, 2012 in Washington, D.C. / Olivier Douliery / Pool / Getty Images

President Obama is headed to the Capitol today to meet with Senate Democrats - the first of three consecutive trips for Mr. Obama to the Hill over three days as he continues his outreach to Congress.

His visit comes as Washington girds for weeks of warfare over the budget for next year and beyond as both House and Senate Budget Committees this week take up blueprints for the upcoming 2014 budget year.

The first salvo in that battle is coming from House Republicans poised to release on Tuesday a now-familiar budget featuring gestures to block Obamacare, turn Medicare into a voucher-like program for future retirees and sharply curb Medicaid and domestic agency budgets. Such ideas are dead on arrival with Obama and Democrats controlling the Senate, but will - in concert with new taxes on the wealthy enacted in January - allow Republicans to propose a budget that would come to balance within 10 years.

• Can Obama build on his outreach to GOP?
• Paul Ryan to unveil new budget plan

"We think we owe the American people a balanced budget," House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said on "Fox News Sunday."

Senate Democrats are countering on Wednesday with a budget plan mixing tax increases, cuts to the Pentagon and relatively modest cuts to domestic programs. The measure would not reach balance, but it would undo automatic budget cuts that started taking effect this month and largely leaves alone rapidly growing benefit programs like Medicare.

Mr. Obama's own budget has been delayed repeatedly this year, and it is not clear if he intends to release it before the House and Senate hold their debates this month.

"It's being worked on," White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday. "We are obviously watching Congress for budget proposals that will be put forward in both houses, and we will work with Congress in these conversations."

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Can Obama and the GOP work together?

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Obama "charm offensive" could be good sign for budget

The upcoming debate over the long-term budgetary future promises to be stoutly partisan, even as Mr. Obama is undertaking outreach to rank-and-file Republicans in hopes of sowing the seeds for a bipartisan "grand bargain" on the budget this year after two failed attempts to strike agreement with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. In addition to his meeting with Senate Democrats today, the president will huddle with House Republicans on Wednesday and, on Thursday, with Senate Republicans and House Democrats.

Ryan, the GOP's 2012 vice presidential nominee and a potential 2016 presidential candidate, lauded Mr. Obama's so-called "charm offensive" amid the most caging gridlock in modern congressional history. The president's wine-and-dine effort with a dozen Senate Republicans last week at the Jefferson Hotel and subsequent outreach to Ryan, individually, over broiled sea bass at the White House, he said, did not go unnoticed.

"This is the first time I've ever had a conversation with the president lasting more than, say, two minutes or televised exchanges," Ryan said. "I've never really had a conversation with him, on these issues before. I am excited that we had the conversation. We had a very frank exchange."

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[empirebuilder]

Geez.. Obama visiting the Capitol...wonder if he knows he can still get a tour there.

[empirebuilder]

Wonder if he had to take the bus to make the meeting.. you know sequester cuts and all...

[Barry-been-inhalin]

"Obama's charm offensive" = Admission that Obama is really not that charming.

[stupa5]

Laura Bush Says Republicans 'Frightened' Women
no wonder the GOP is on its way out!

[tb91006]

Obama has lost all his political clout and now looks for compromise after his sequestration debacle. As he continues to drop in the polls and more Americans are educating themselves about the destruction this president is imposing on them, he is becoming more desperate. Time to bury liberalism permanently and let him continue to flounder like a fish out of water.

[zmonkee]

from Washington Post:

House Republicans are planning to raise country's borrowing limit for three months, with a promise to raise it again if Senate Democrats pass a budget. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) promised Sunday that it would happen. If it does, it would be the first time since 2009 that Senate Democrats have passed a budget.

Why is that? Here's a (relatively) simple explanation.

* Democrats don't want the blame. In the Senate, proposing a budget gives Republicans an opportunity to attach amendments that would put political pressure on moderate and conservative Democrats, many of whom already have an eye on their re-election races in 2014. Budget deal-making has always been difficult and budgets almost never come in on time; increasing partisanship has made it even worse. By not introducing a budget, Democrats can keep their names off plans that detail high spending and high deficits. Meanwhile, they can attack House Republicans for their controversial budget plans. (See Ryan, Paul.)

* Democrats couldn't decide on one. Former Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) repeatedly drafted budgets and attempted to bring them to the floor. But pressure from liberal Democrats on one side and conservative Democrats on the other made it a struggle. In 2011, Conrad proposed a budget that many Democrats attacked as going too far to the right. In May of that year, Conrad announced that Democrats were "very close to an agreement" after some concessions to liberals, but that he would defer to the high-level bipartisan negotiations over the debt ceiling. Democrats did decide on a blueprint in July but did not put it up for a vote. In 2012 Conrad worked on a modified version of Simpson-Bowles but with little hope of a vote. Now, he is gone — having retired at the end of the 113th Congress.

[tb91006]

I see the low information people like not so action do not know the difference between a budget and continuing resolutions.

[Ulgnud]

Don't trust Obama with his sudden schmoozing. As soon as he gets what he wants, the political knife will be in their backs.

[Calif_Conservative]

Hello media why aren't you saying the spending now is larger than all spending for the federal, state and local governments combined in 2001? Why aren't you telling the people there has been no need for debt ceiling increase debates if there were a budget and they are not passing a budget because the government does not want to show us they have left the wars and the spending on the emergency bailouts of the auto inducsty and the banks on the baseline for the budget so future budgets can increase that much faster.

[sjc_1]

The House is being controlled by a small group of extremists that do NOT represent the country. This is not how a modern democracy is suppose to work.

[Ulgnud]

Not representing the country? They are keeping the credit card out of Obama's hands. That alone is a big plus to the nation.

[sjc_1]

President Obama was elected by a majority of voters nation wide. Boehner was elected by a group from a district in Ohio.

[wfw3536]

Maybe Obama will talked to Reid about why he hasn't passed a budget in over 4 years. I guess Obama and Reid need a basic lession on government, normally both the Senate and House pass a bill and then have reps of both HOuses go conference to resolve any differences in the bill. But if they did this they couldn't blame the GOP and conservatives for everything.

[Ulgnud]

The law is the President starts the process by sending a budget proposal to Congress. No viable budget proposal has come from Obama in 4 years. It was briefly, very briefly, reported he made 2 attempts. Both were voted down by nearly all the Senators voting on it. Quite a bipartisan rejection by the liberal controlled Senate too.

[jpcmca2003]

Please list your examples of lies told by Limbaugh and Fox!....

[javamon2]

And how many budgets has "O" submitted, as required by law, since holding office.....I'm waiting....I'm waiting (crickets chirping). If our budget and deficit don't get fixed soon, the market forces will do it for us. The longer we wait, the more painful it will be.

[sjc_1]

"The Budget of the United States Government often begins as the President's proposal to the U.S. Congress which recommends funding levels for the next fiscal year, beginning October 1. However, Congress is the body required by law to pass a budget annually and to submit the budget passed by both houses to the President for signature..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget

So Congress is required by law to pass a budget, not the President. If you want to see all the President's budget proposals you can see them here.

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/collectionGPO.action?collectionCode=BUDGET

[javamon2]

How about some leadership from the anointed one. You sound like someone from MSNBC. When is the last time the Senate has presented a budget for vote?

[trout-fish]

Republicans are incredibly stupid. Here they go again with the Ryan budget - the same one that helped defeat them in 2012.

At some point these guys are going to realize that their ideas stink, but it may take another election cycle or two before that finally sinks in. They seem to believe that it is simply a communications issue ... if people understood them they would support them. The exact opposite is true, but they have not figured that out yet. Like I said - stupid.

[zmonkee]

HOWEVER.....people are now starting to find out what obamacare is about....and not as many are liking it---

[sprankles]

Leading with "Republicans are incredibly stupid" makes you sound like a dum bass, spoutingshit like a fountain; a democratic enima of knowledge.