What’s In a Picture? Not the Democratic Budget Committee

Senate Democrats are sure committed to resolving the budget crisis. So committed, they’re not even showing up to their own meetings.

The picture below comes from the Twitter account of the GOP Senate Budget Committee. (@BudgetGOP)

 The empty chairs around the table are where the Democratic members of the committee would be sitting if they’d bothered to show up to Wednesday’s meeting of the Senate Budget Committee. Democratic chairman Kent Conrad (ND) apparently scheduled the meeting to discuss the 2013 Democratic budget resolution.

As of April 29th, the Senate will have gone 3 years without passing a budget and Democrats are on television non-stop blaming Republicans for doing nothing and being non-cooperative. The Republicans have come up with multiple budget proposals, including the much-maligned Path to Prosperity budget authored by Congressman Paul Ryan (WI). The budget is touted by Democrats as being ‘too extreme’ for it’s Medicaid/Medicare overhaul program and for making drastic cuts in federal spending. Cuts so drastic that according to the CBO, Ryan’s Budget doesn’t project a federal surplus until the 2040’s. And as far as the bi-partisan effort Democrats are screaming for, the so-called ‘super committee’ failed to even come to an agreement about budget cuts.

So who’s really frustrating attempts to pass a budget? Is it the Republicans, who’ve brought multiple budget proposals to vote? Or is it the Democrats, led by Barack Obama, whose budget proposal failed by a vote of 0-97 in the Democratically controlled Senate (Perfect example of bi-partisan support?), and who can’t even bother to show up to meetings to work on their own budget proposals?

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words…