By Susan Duclos
After the House of Representatives rejected the Senates "tax and spend" budget along with the progressives "tax and spend more" budget on Thursday, it was fully expected the Democrats in the Senate would vote down the Ryan plan, which was the only one offered that balances the budget by 2023.
The Ryan plan was rejected by the Senate in a 40-59 vote.
Another motion offered by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) was rejected by senate Democrats. A motion to recommit, which would have sent the Senate Democrats budget plan back to the Budget Committee until Saturday with instructions to make it balance by 2023.
That motion failed with a vote of 46-53, with only one Senate Democrat,Joe Manchin (D-WV), voting to require Senate Democrats to balance their budget by 2023.
Sessions blasted Senate Democrats following that vote:
“Tonight the American people witnessed a remarkable and alarming event: the Senate’s Democrat majority declared they do not want to balance the budget, will not balance the budget, and will oppose any effort to balance the budget in any way."
“They can balance the budget any way they want to. They can raise taxes, they can cut spending,” Session said.
“This motion would simply say this to our colleagues, 'Do you favor a balanced budget? Is it important to you? Have you said you’d vote for a balanced budget?' ” Sessions said. “A goal of balancing the budget isn’t just some frivolous goal -- it will mean that we’ll put our government on a sustainable path.”
Barack Obama was recently quoted saying his "goal" was not a balanced budget and Senate Democrats have just proved they have no intention of providing Americans with a balanced budget either.