(TheLibertyRevolution.com)- Liberals are pushing forth with a blueprint for their budget that would start the process for passing a massive spending bill without receiving any Republican support.
The resolution Democrats in the Senate put forth on Monday included instructions on how the $3.5 trillion bill would be drafted. It also doesn’t include any increase to the U.S. debt ceiling.
The budget resolution as well as the spending plan can be passed by Democrats using budget reconciliation, which they used earlier this year to pass President Joe Biden’s massive economic stimulus package.
Reconciliation would only require Democrats to receive 50 votes in favor of the bill. That means all Democrats could vote yes, with all Republicans voting now, and the bill would still pass — since Vice President Kamala Harris would hold the tie-breaking vote.
Republicans have set this up for Democrats in a way, since they said there wouldn’t be 10 members of the GOP in the Senate who would vote in favor of upping the debt ceiling outside of the normal budget process. Those 10 votes would be needed to avoid the Senate filibuster.
Since Democrats are keeping the budget resolution out of the plan means that a huge fight over the borrowing limit in America is brewing for sometime this fall.
Democrats in the Senate are hoping to pass this resolution this week. That will come only after the Senate completes the work it is doing to come to an agreement on a bipartisan infrastructure bill that will total approximately $1 trillion.
After that happens, various committees in the Senate will start working on all their own parts of the massive $3.5 trillion bill. That is expected to take weeks as Democrats and Republicans haggle over different parts of the package.
In a letter sent to other Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the budget resolution is where they will begin negotiations within the party for the spending bill.
As he wrote to the Democratic caucus:
“Please remember that the resolution only includes ‘top-line’ reconciliation instructions to the committees, and that every Senator will have opportunities to shape and influence the final reconciliation bill after adoption of the Budget Resolution.”
He also wrote that the resolution “provides a target date of September 15th to the committees to submit their reconciliation legislation. We will work towards this goal and meet, as a caucus, during the week of the 15th to review the bill.”
The budget resolution will give the go-ahead to Democrats to include many of their major priorities in the final spending package. Included among that is universal pre-K for all 3- and 4-year-old students, providing “lawful permanent status for qualified immigrants, clean energy technology and an expansion of Medicare.
Sanders, who is the chair of the Senate Budget Committee, said this resolution will set up “the most consequential piece of legislation … since FDR and the New Deal of the 1930s.”
