By Alan Fram - The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Democrats approved a $ 3.5 trillion budget resolution this morning to bolster programs for family services, health and the environment, following a long series of votes on 47 Republican-led amendments that prolonged debate lasting more than 14 hours. .
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Passage of the budget resolution would mark a crucial first step by Democrats in pushing forward the core of President Joe Biden's national agenda.
The move would open the door for the government's fiscal power to help families, create jobs and fight climate change with higher taxes for the rich and big business that will go to pay much of the bill.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, center, Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021.AP Photo / Andrew Harnik
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders declared the measure would help children, families, the elderly and workers.
"Also, I hope, it will
restore the faith of the American people in the belief that we can have a government that works for all of us
, and not just a few," he said.
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Republicans argued that the Democrats' proposals would waste money, raise taxes, boost inflation, and encourage far-left dictates, hurting Americans.
If Biden and Senate Democrats want to "outsource domestic politics to President Sanders" with a "historically reckless tax and spending party," Republicans lack the votes to stop them, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell admitted. Republican for Kentucky.
"But we will debate. We will vote," he concluded.
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Passing a budget resolution is critical because in the Senate, split 50-50, it would allow Democrats to pass a subsequent bill that actually enacts their $ 3.5 trillion in spending and tax policies over the next decade.
Passing the budget would protect the follow-up legislation from Republican filibustering
, a parliamentary objection tactic that has led to the need for 60 votes to pass some laws in the Senate.
Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, announced Tuesday that lawmakers would return from recess on Aug. 23 to vote on that plan and perhaps other measures.
President Nancy Pelosi, D-California, has praised the budget resolution.
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The Senate began debating this budget minutes after passing a bipartisan $ 1 trillion infrastructure plan thanks to a coalition of Democrats and Republicans for transportation, water, broadband and other projects.
That measure, passed 69-30 with McConnell among the 19 Republicans backing it, now needs approval from the House of Representatives.
In contrast, all Republicans present objected, as the Senate voted 50-49 to begin considering the budget.
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota, was not around to be with his sick wife.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, assured progressives that Congress will pursue radical initiatives that go beyond the infrastructure compromise.
It was a nod to the divisions between the party's moderates and liberals that he and Pelosi will have to resolve before Congress can pass their fiscal targets.
Democrats also control the House of Representatives, but only to a limited extent.
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"To my colleagues who are concerned that this is not enough for the climate, for families and for corporations and the rich to pay their fair share:
we are moving towards a second way, which will make a generational transformation in these areas"
, Schumer explained.
Senators were immersed in a vote-a-rama session, an uninterrupted parade of amendments.
With the budget resolution, the goal of most of the amendments was not to win, but to force senators from the other party to cast problematic votes that can be used against them in next year's elections for control of Congress.
Republicans bragged after Democrats opposed Republican amendments calling for the full-time reopening of schools closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, boosting the Pentagon budget and maintaining limits on tax deductions for the COVID-19 pandemic. federal income for state and local taxes. Those deduction limits are hated by lawmakers in high-income states, mostly Democrats.
Republicans were also delighted when Democrats opposed restricting the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) access to some financial records, which McConnell's office said would spark a political "witch hunt," and when Democrats showed their support for Biden's now-suspended ban on the leasing of oil and gas on federal land, which Republicans say would lead to rapid increases in the price of gasoline.