AFP, Washington :
The Republican-led US Senate approved a 2016 budget blueprint early Friday, one that would balance federal spending in 10 years without raising taxes, trim trillions of spending dollars and repeal “Obamacare.”
The process, in which several dozen politically-charged amendments were offered, saw Democrats and Republicans stake out their positions ahead of the 2016 presidential election as potential candidates prepare to battle over who will succeed Barack Obama in the White House.
On Wednesday the House of Representatives approved its own budget version, a nearly $3.8 trillion plan which eliminates the federal deficit in nine years and slashes $5.5 trillion in spending over a decade.
Each Republican plan was slimmer than the $4 trillion wishlist put forward by Obama in February. That one would blow through mandatory spending caps, raise taxes, and spend nearly $500 billion on improving infrastructure.
After a 15-hour voting session in the Senate, which allows for a freewheeling amendment-offering procedure, lawmakers narrowly approved the measure, 52-46.
The two chambers will gather after an upcoming two-week recess and hammer out a compromise, but a budget resolution is just a guide and has no power of law.
It mostly lays out a party’s priorities, in this case those of the Republicans whose pledge to ease gridlock in Washington has been put to the test since January, when they took control of both chambers of Congress for the first time since 2006.
But this budget laid bare disputes between some of the four Republican senators who are openly considering presidential campaigns.
Two of them offered competing measures on defense.
Senator Marco Rubio called for military spending above the $96 billion the budget reportedly sought for 2016, without offsets elsewhere. But it failed.
Senator Rand Paul, a fiscal hawk, urged more defense spending but sought spending cuts elsewhere. It, too, was shot down.
All Democrats voted no on the overall budget.
The Republican-led US Senate approved a 2016 budget blueprint early Friday, one that would balance federal spending in 10 years without raising taxes, trim trillions of spending dollars and repeal “Obamacare.”
The process, in which several dozen politically-charged amendments were offered, saw Democrats and Republicans stake out their positions ahead of the 2016 presidential election as potential candidates prepare to battle over who will succeed Barack Obama in the White House.
On Wednesday the House of Representatives approved its own budget version, a nearly $3.8 trillion plan which eliminates the federal deficit in nine years and slashes $5.5 trillion in spending over a decade.
Each Republican plan was slimmer than the $4 trillion wishlist put forward by Obama in February. That one would blow through mandatory spending caps, raise taxes, and spend nearly $500 billion on improving infrastructure.
After a 15-hour voting session in the Senate, which allows for a freewheeling amendment-offering procedure, lawmakers narrowly approved the measure, 52-46.
The two chambers will gather after an upcoming two-week recess and hammer out a compromise, but a budget resolution is just a guide and has no power of law.
It mostly lays out a party’s priorities, in this case those of the Republicans whose pledge to ease gridlock in Washington has been put to the test since January, when they took control of both chambers of Congress for the first time since 2006.
But this budget laid bare disputes between some of the four Republican senators who are openly considering presidential campaigns.
Two of them offered competing measures on defense.
Senator Marco Rubio called for military spending above the $96 billion the budget reportedly sought for 2016, without offsets elsewhere. But it failed.
Senator Rand Paul, a fiscal hawk, urged more defense spending but sought spending cuts elsewhere. It, too, was shot down.
All Democrats voted no on the overall budget.
