The federal government has operated without a formal budget for over three and a half years but some Democratic senators up for re-election have denied this when challenged by their Republican opponents.
Democratic Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey said it is “not true” that the Democrat-controlled Senate has not passed a full budget in over three and a half years.
(RELATED: Oct. 29 marks three and a half years to the day since the Senate passed a budget)
“The voters in Pennsylvania want a leader,” his Republican challenger Tom Smith said.
“How can you sit in the United States Senate and your party controls it and you haven’t passed a budget in over three years?”
“That’s not true,” Casey replied, according to The Morning Call.
Ohio Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown criticized his Republican opponent, Josh Mandel, for accusing him of failing to pass a budget in the Senate as part of the majority party.
“The talking points that Josh has are always ‘didn’t pass a budget, didn’t pass a budget.’ But the facts are we passed a budget control act which has the force of law which cut $2 trillion in spending and are making a difference in getting our budget under control,” Brown said.
“Do you have a budget control act around your kitchen table? Or a budget control act in your small business? No. I mean that’s ridiculous. It’s Washington speak,” Mandel said.
“We have budgets. We manage our households with a budget. We manage our small businesses with a budget. But unfortunately in Washington, these politicians think they can live by a different set of rules than us. After you’ve been there for 20 years, I think that’s just what happens. Unfortunately, they haven’t passed a budget in over three years. It’s a dereliction of their duty.”
Democratic Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, a member of the Senate budget committee, has “repeatedly denied” Republican Connie Mack’s claim that the “Senate hasn’t passed a budget in four years,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The Chronicle points out that “Mack was correct” because “while the Senate has passed measures to keep the government going it has not passed a full budget resolution since 2009.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has been the target of House Speaker John Boehner’s criticism on fiscal issues for failing to pass a budget.
“The House is the only body that’s passed a bill to stop the sequester. We have done our work but here, Senate Democrats and the president — where is their responsibility? Where is their leadership? It just doesn’t exist,” he said.