“Does my colleague from Florida believe that the House of Representatives, dominated by Republicans, are going to raise the debt limit?” McCain asked Rubio.

The Senate and House have each passed a budget resolution. Now the chambers must agree to go to conference to bridge the gaps between the Democrat and Republican fiscal plans. Democratic leaders in the Senate must ask for unanimous consent to appoint conferees to the budget.

The list of Senators who have objected to these requests reads like a Tea-Party all-star lineup: Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Sens. Cruz of Texas, Rubio of Florida, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky have all objected to allowing conferees to the budget unless Democrats guarantee not to raise the debt limit or increase taxes.

“We’re talking about a minority within a minority,” McCain said today about his Tea Party-affiliated colleagues. In a rare moment of bipartisanship, he joined Democrats in lamenting that “we can’t go to conference unless we agree not to raise the debt limit.”

McCain ceded the floor after informing the chamber that “the majority of my colleagues on this side of the aisle” want to complete work on the budget.

“What we’re saying here on this side of the aisle is we don’t trust our colleagues on the other side of the Capitol who are in the majority,” he said.

Cruz responded quickly by saying, “Let me be clear: I don’t trust the Republicans and I don’t trust the Democrats,” in regards to handling the raising of the debt ceiling.

Rubio echoed Cruz, pointing out that America’s fiscal well-being “is not a trivial matter.” Republicans’ request to Democrats is not “some ridiculous thing,” he said.

“I’m not asking that the key lime pie be made the official pie of the United States,” Rubio said.

Only one Democratic senator added his voice to the floor fray: Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin interrupted to observe that members of the minority party “seem to be at odds.”

Original post is McCain, Tea Party Senators Squabble Over Budget Procedure by Political Capital.

Photograph by Rich Clement/Bloomberg

Supporters for passage of a new agriculture law rally near the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 12, 2012.

From Bloomberg Government’s CongressTracker

Though it’s only Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid can see the end of the week from here.

During today’s session-opening floor remarks, Reid said that the chairwoman of the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, Michigan Democrat Debbie Stabenow, had expressed optimism about finishing work on the farm bill, S. 954.

“I spoke to Chairman Stabenow last night; she indicated that she believes that there’s an opportunity to finish the bill even this week,” Reid said. “I certainly hope that’s the case.”

Original post is Reid: Farm Bill Can Be Finished This Week by Political Capital.

Photograph by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

Right fielder Bryce Harper, #34 of the Washington Nationals, walks off the field with trainer Lee Kuntz as he bleeds from the neck after running into the wall chasing a triple hit by A.J. Ellis of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the fifth inning at Dodger Stadium on May 13, 2013.

The injured Bryce Harper, the Washington Nationals’ prolific outfielder, can add another accomplishment to his budding career – bringing Democrats and Republicans together.

Majority Leader Harry Reid opened the Senate this morning with news that “the Republican leader and I just spent a minute commiserating on the fact that we follow – both of us –very closely, the Washington Nationals. We talk often about how they fare on any given day and we talk about the Las Vegas young man Bryce Harper.”

Reid, who hails from Nevada as well, called Harper, “a phenomenon in baseball.”

Last night in a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Harper collided with the outfield wall while chasing down a fly ball. He left the game and required 11 stitches to close a gash on his chin and is expected to miss a handful of games while recovering from the full-speed crash.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell described Harper as “the most incredible competitor I’ve ever seen.”

The two leaders delayed their partisan squabbles to pass on their best wishes to the ballplayer.

While closing his speech this morning, Reid promised to call the Harper family to check in on Bryce’s health.

McConnell asked that “when you speak to his mother remind her that this is one thing that both leaders on both sides fully agree on. We’re hoping that Harper has a speedy recovery.”

Original post is Bryce Harper: Congressional Harmony ala Washington Nationals by Political Capital.

Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Senator Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, listens to a question during a news conference after the weekly Democratic Policy Committee meeting in Washington, D.C.

“Like schoolyard bullies, if Republicans can’t win, they’ll take the ball and go home,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid complained during his session-opener this morning.

The Nevada Democrat was referring to the  impasse between House and Senate on how to proceed toward a budget agreement. Both chambers have passed their own budget resolutions with huge differences remaining between the Republican and Democratic versions.

The Senate budget resolution, passed earlier this year on a party-line vote, was the first one to clear the chamber in almost five years.

Reid acknowledged this delay explaining that his counterparts, “Ask and then ask again for the Senate to pass a budget resolution… Well they got what they wished. The dog finally caught the car.”

With unanimous consent, the majority leader could appoint conferees from the Senate to iron out differences with colleagues in the House, but Republicans thus far have objected to his requests.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz did just that last night on the Senate floor as he attempted to instruct conferees on the budget to not raise taxes or the debt ceiling. The objection earned the ire of the majority leader this morning as Reid, without naming him, singled out Cruz.

“Last night, a very junior senator from Texas said Republicans would agree to go to conference only if Democrats first would give in to their demands,” Reid explained. “Maybe the junior senator from Texas doesn’t remember, but we remember. We remember the government being on the verge of losing its ability to be part of the world community by not paying its debts.”

Feigning Senatorial cordiality, he continued: “My friend – I’m sorry – the junior Senator from Texas said he wanted a guarantee that as a bargaining pawn that we would make sure that the debt ceiling would not be raised.”

After the name-calling and finger pointing, Reid closed his morning speech with an accusation usually reserved for the playground: “Republicans refuse to play the game unless we let them win.”

Original post is Senate Recess Over, Playground Still Busy by Political Capital.

Photograph by T.J. Kirkpatrick/Getty Images

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) heads to the weekly Senate Republicans policy luncheon on March 19, 2013 in Washington, DC.

The Senate is taking a “burner day” on an online sales-tax measure today, allowing a cloture motion time to mature. The wait threatens to keep Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander away from the Paris Fish Fry parade.

“If we continue to object to every amendment in this bill, I won’t get to walk in the parade at the Paris Fish Fry tomorrow,” Alexander said about the World’s Biggest Fish Fry in his home state of Tennessee.

Leaders on the sales-tax measure implored colleagues to drop their objections and come to agreement on moving forward swiftly. Barring such agreement, Senators would have to wait until Saturday to complete work on the bill.

That would mean Alexander would miss out on the fish fry. Today on the Senate floor he explained that parades are quite popular in his home state.

“This is the season for parades in Tennessee,” he said. “On weekends and Fridays, I go home and I have a rule of thumb: Walk in parades.”

At the Mule Day parade in Colombia County for example, “100,000 people are there, lots of mules.”

“I always try to walk at the front of the Mule Day parade for obvious reasons,” he said.

Alexander was confident that even with the procedural stalling, “we’ll pass the vote on Saturday and I suspect with 74 or 75 votes.”

Original post is Sales-Tax Measure Threatens to Rain on Alexander’s Parade by Political Capital.

There goes Joe being Joe.

With the Senate set to begin a series of contentious votes on amendments to a gun control bill, including a plan for background checks that was all that was left of the White House’s gun-safety agenda, Vice President Joe Biden grabbed the gavel and presided.

All amendments this afternoon required 60 affirmative votes to be adopted.

Several red-state Democrats, up for re-election this cycle, were evasive in the lead- up to votes, unwilling to commit to legislation opposed by the powerful NRA gun lobby, and making it difficult for Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada to  keep a united caucus.

In the event of a tie vote on any of the amendments, Biden could have been the deciding vote, tilting legislation in Democrats’ favor. It wasn’t even close. The main measure failed on a 54-46 vote.

Always one to make an entrance, the vice president had started with a verbal stumble.

In recognizing Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley from the chair, Biden initially misidentified Grassley as the senator from Ohio before correcting himself.

Grassley chuckled before retorting: “By the way, we’re the state that’s got the first in the nation caucus,” referring to presidential nominating caucuses that will lead the primary voting in the 2016 presidential elections.

Biden, a possible Democratic candidate for president, quickly responded from the chair: “That’s why I corrected myself.”

Original post is Biden: Iowa, Yes, Know it Well by Political Capital.

Photograph by Everett Collection

Cleavon Little in Blazing Saddles, 1974.

Congressional leaders have had a lot to say about their across the board budget cuts, also known as sequestration.

Sen. Mark Warner brought film director Mel Brooks into the discussion this morning.

Echoing remarks made by former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in the lead-up to sequestration, the Virginia Democrat compared the cuts to a scene in the classic comedy “Blazing Saddles.”

Warner explained that, in the movie, “The sheriff comes out and puts a gun to his head and all the townspeople come out and say, ‘Oh my gosh, the sheriff may pull the trigger.’ We in Congress set up that circumstance with sequester, and unfortunately two weeks ago we allowed that trigger to be pulled.”

On the big screen, the townspeople of Rock Ridge back off and let Sheriff Bart retreat into his office with town leaders imploring the crowd gathered, “Listen to him men, he’s just crazy enough to do it!”

In Warner’s version of events, Congress wasn’t smart enough to avoid the cuts.

“These cuts were set up to be the stupidest way possible,” he reminded his colleagues. “No rational group of folks would allow them to come to pass.”

Original post is Blazing Budgetary Saddles ‘Stupidest’ by Political Capital.

Photograph by Tim Sloan/AFP via Getty Images

The Easter Bunny looks out from the Truman Balcony during the Annual Easter Egg Roll at the White House in this file photo.

This begs the question of whether the Easter Bunny has a budget:

Leaders of both parties in Congress have asked for a return to regular order, pushing for committees to work through bill drafting and for floor action to finish the legislative sausage making process.

Look no further than the Senate floor this morning for something all too familiar and “regular” in Washington – the Reid recess threat and the Ryan budget.

With work days flying by and a Easter recess set to begin in less than 12 days, the Senate has yet to complete work on either the Continuing Resolution to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year or the Senate version of a budget.  Their most urgent deadline is March 27 — when a current spending resolution expires.

Majority Leader Reid, a Nevada Democrat, has promised an open amendment process for both bills, undoubtedly taking plenty of floor time and work.

“We have our Easter recess coming a week from Friday and we’re not going to be able to do that,” Reid lamented today on the floor.  ”Everyone should be prepared to change their plans the first few days – we hope it’s the first few days -of the Easter recess.”

Recess threats from Reid are not new to the chamber, nor is his disapproval of the House budget proposed by Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan, the House’s budget chairman.

Before taking off on a familiar line of criticism for the House budget, Reid noted the similarities in Ryan’s spending calculations over the last three years: “Gee-wiz, not again … even the name is the same!”

Original post is Easter Bunny Eats the Budget Talks by Political Capital.

Photograph by Jewel Samad/AFP via Getty Images

Sen. Charles Schumer, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin hold a news conference at the Capitol on the eve of the budget sequester on Feb. 28, 2013 in Washington.

If the first rule in “Fight Club” is not to talk about fight club, the first rule in the U.S. Senate is to never acknowledge its shortcomings.

Senators pretend to be cordial, part of the most deliberative body in the world, but they seldom truly debate. Members go to the floor, spill their talking points, and if confronted by an opposing viewpoint rarely confront the issue at hand. For those in the visitors’ gallery, or watching along on CSPAN-2, the Senate appears to be a smooth-sailing legislative body — members sometimes taking to the floor to address no one but the TV camera.

This afternoon on the floor of the chamber,  Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois was caught in a back-and-forth with Pennsylvania Republican Pat Toomey.

Toomey was trying to make the point that President Barack Obama has been overstating the impacts that budget sequestration would have on the aviation industry, citing lower levels in funding requests for the FAA in his FY 2013 budget.

Durbin was in no mood to politely pivot from Toomey and instead demanded control of the chamber. His voice rising, he warned of the threats the transportation industry faces under sequestration and looked toward the gallery saying: “This is getting perilously close to a debate. Which I might tell those in attendance never happens on the floor of the Senate.”

Original post is Danger: Debate Breaks out in Senate by Political Capital.

Photograph by Win McNamee/Getty Images

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell arrives at the White House prior to meeting with President Barack Obama on Dec. 28, 2012 in Washington.

Well that was quick. With President Barack Obama set to deliver the State of the Union address tonight, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has already taken to the floor to lob his preemptive response.

“The campaign is over, and the fact is, if the president plans to accomplish anything good for the country in the coming months, he’s going to have to go through a Republican-controlled House,” the Kentucky senator said.

The Senate opener would not be complete without a few verbal jabs, and McConnell did not miss a beat when discussing the White House announcement that Obama will focus on job growth and the economy.

“I was pleased to read that the president might ‘pivot’ to jobs tonight,” quipped the leader. “I mean, he’s pivoted so many times, reporters covering the White House must be getting dizzy.”

McConnell specifically requested a detailed roadmap for how to deal with the upcoming defense cuts contained in the sequester.

“If the president really wants a ‘balanced’ approach, now’s the time to show his hand on the spending cuts and reforms he’ll accept,” he said. “That’s how compromise works.”

The minority leader said he has faith in Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, the man tasked with delivering the bilingual Republican response tonight.

“Now, even if we don’t hear the president speak directly to the issues Americans are most concerned about tonight, I’m confident the man who is set to follow him with the Republican response will,” McConnell said.

“Unlike our rather easily distracted president, Sen. Rubio has never had to ‘pivot’ to jobs,” he added.

Original post is McConnell Takes Early Shots at Obama’s State of Union by Political Capital.