McCain Battles Party Leaders on Budget Plan

[babylonsister]

:nopity:

McCain Battles Party Leaders on Budget Plan
By Jonathan Allen, CQ Staff


Republican leaders in the Senate are clashing with John McCain , their party’s 2008 presidential nominee. He wants to offer an alternative to the Democratic budget and they don’t.

The behind-the-scenes battle is part of a larger split in the Republican Party.

Some in the GOP believe their best strategy is to resist President Obama’s agenda and take carefully chosen shots through amendments they all agree on; others want the party to do more to demonstrate how a Republican imprint would be different.

As Congress works on setting broad budget caps for fiscal 2010, McCain appears to be in the minority among Republicans, most of whom seem unwilling to stand behind a full-size alternative to the Democrats’ budget (S Con Res 13).

By making that choice, the GOP risks being cast as the party that can only say what it doesn’t want and not what it would do, if given the chance.

Building a better budget is hard, President Obama said during last week’s news conference, and, “That’s why the critics tend to criticize, but they don’t offer an alternative budget.”

more...

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docid=news-000003089317

[gratuitous]

1. Fight! Fight!

Will we ever see the "Republicans in Disarray" headline? Or would that cause publishers' and producers' heads to explode?

[babylonsister]

2. Oy! Rumor Mill: McCain Working On His Own Budget

I'm sure that will be acceptable, too, as McCain is such a whiz with the economy! :D

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/01/rumor-mill-mccain-to-intr_n_181640.html

McCain Rumored To Be Working His Own Budget
Sam Stein
April 1, 2009 07:57 AM


The buzz on Wednesday morning is that Sen. John McCain will introduce his own, alternative budget, perhaps sometime this week, to serve as a contrast to the one proposed by president Obama.

ABC's The Note posted the chatter on its twitter feed and the Huffington Post has been hearing similar -- though unconfirmed -- talk. Sen. McCain's office did not return a request for comment or confirmation.

Should McCain actually go forward with the plan, it would be a symbolic continuation of the economic debates of the presidential campaign. It would also put him a step further than his own party's leadership in the Senate, which has pledged to simply offer amendments to Obama's budget. House Republicans, after issuing a budget without numbers last week ("Budgetish," as the DNC called it), plans to introduce a more detailed proposal today.

This past Sunday, McCain did tell "Meet the Press'" David Gregory that an alternative budget was in the works. But his proclamation -- "we're working on it, working very hard on it" -- was widely interpreted to be in reference to Senate Republican leadership, which subsequently ruled out a budget of its own.

In retrospect, "we" could have meant: "my staff." After all, McCain's aides have been soliciting ideas for a major economic platform. His chief of staff recently sent an email to an economic adviser from the campaign for help putting together a "ten principles" program, along the lines of Newt Gingrich's Contract With America.

[ErinBerin84]

3. I thought that

they had already said they WERE coming out with an alternative budget, and that it was supposed to come out today...Sometimes it really does seem like McCain wants to relitigate the campaign.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/01/rumor-mill-mccain-to-intr_n_181640.html


ABC's The Note posted the chatter on its twitter feed and the Huffington Post has been hearing similar -- though unconfirmed -- talk. Sen. McCain's office did not return a request for comment or confirmation.

Should McCain actually go forward with the plan, it would be a symbolic continuation of the economic debates of the presidential campaign. It would also put him a step further than his own party's leadership in the Senate, which has pledged to simply offer amendments to Obama's budget. House Republicans, after issuing a budget without numbers last week ("Budgetish," as the DNC called it), plans

[babylonsister]

4. That's from the House. The Senate doesn't want to offer no stinkin'

budget.

Kyl (R-Whiner/Hypocrite): Dems have 'no right' to demand Republican budget

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5365191&mesg_id=5365191

[ErinBerin84]

6. ahhhhh, ok.

Too funny.

[KharmaTrain]

5. We Already Know the Rushpublican "Alternative"

That's why our economy is in the shitter. It's tax cuts for the rich, billions squandered on contractors and outsourcing and destroying any and all good works a government can do. The only thing they do now is obstruct and wish for the country to fail.

The fun here is seeing how rudderless and clueless the GOOP is. McCain should be backbenched like other losers have been, but the GOOP has no leadership, no ideas and keep getting yanked further to the right in their desperate need to stay viable.

The bottom line is the decades of rushpublican bullshit has been totally discredit. Everything! From defense to the economy to civil rights and thensome, Americans know where the GOOP stands and rejected them. The only unity they seek now is one that pushes them off the political abyss even further.

Cheers...