But the GOP requests for an open budget process are “the kind of political games that aren’t serious,” Carney told reporters Dec. 6.
Democrats face a “filibuster” because they don’t have 60 votes in the Senate, Carney complained.
That’s a problem for the White House, because the Democratic majority would have to compromise with the Republican minority before it could agree on a budget that would later be merged with a draft House budget.
“You’re going along with the gamesmanship here,” Carney snapped at one reporter, who asked him about the GOP’s request for a budget debate.
“We’re trying to be serious in the negotiations,” he insisted, adding that “we’ve seen no counter-proposal” from the GOP to the president’s pitch for a $1.6 trillion tax increase.
Obama’s proposed 10-year budget plan would raise taxes by $1.6 trillion, and still push the nation’s debt to $25 trillion in 2022, Sessions said in a Dec. 6 speech on the Senate floor.
The plan trims only $400 billion from cumulative deficits that would total $9 trillion over the next decade, Sessions added.
The budget-busting numbers in the president’s plans are hidden by careful manipulation, Sessions argued.
“This would not be possible if we had the [budget] plan on the floor so it could be voted in the light of day,” he said.
