Senate Budget panel approves first spending blueprint in four years

[ProSense]

Senate Budget panel approves first spending blueprint in four years

By Vicki Needham

The Senate Budget Committee on Thursday evening approved its first budget in four years and, as expected, the 12-10 vote came down right along party lines.

The fiscal blueprint produced by Senate Budget Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) makes modest cuts to the federal deficit over the next decade and contains $975 billion in tax increases by ending tax breaks for corporations and wealthier individuals.

Murray explained that she is asking wealthier taxpayers and bigger businesses to chip in a little more to "make critical investments to get economy going again."

The budget also proposes $100 billion in stimulus spending for road and bridge construction and repairs, school repairs and worker training.

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http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/288339-senate-budget-panel-approves-first-budget-measure-in-four-years

Here's the most important thing: sparing safety net.

Senate panel to approve budget sparing safety net

By ANDREW TAYLOR

WASHINGTON (AP) — Acting on the Senate's first budget since President Barack Obama took office, a Democratic-led panel is moving toward party-line approval of a fiscal blueprint that would only modestly trim the budget deficit while protecting safety net programs from slashing cuts proposed by Republicans.

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http://news.yahoo.com/senate-panel-approve-budget-sparing-safety-net-070103758--finance.html

Patty Murray: Our budget is balanced, fair

Unlike House Republicans, Democrats in the Senate take a responsible approach toward tackling the deficit.

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The highest priority of the Senate budget is protecting our economic recovery and laying down a strong foundation for broad-based economic growth.

It responsibly replaces the harmful cuts from sequestration that threaten 750,000 jobs this year alone. And it invests in infrastructure, education and innovation...Our budget also strengthens and protects Medicare and other programs seniors and families depend on, because we don't think they should have to bear the burden of deficit reduction alone.

Our budget also tackles our deficit and debt responsibly. It builds on the $2.4 trillion in deficit reduction enacted since 2010 with an additional $1.85 trillion in new savings — exceeding the bipartisan goal laid out by the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles Commission.

We do this in a balanced and fair way, with one half from responsible spending cuts across the federal budget, and one half from closing wasteful loopholes and deductions that benefit the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations, such as those that allow offshore tax abuse or provide deductions for shipping jobs overseas.

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http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/03/14/democratic-budget-patty-murray/1989075/

It's time to move on with the Senate Democrats' budget and get back to focusing on creating jobs, climate change, immigration, rebuilding the infrastructure, implementing and strengthening the health care and Wall Street reform laws.

[ProSense]

1. Kick for

more exposure. Why is there so little coverage of this bill being passed out of committee?