Last week, Democrats unveiled their budget plan for the rest of this year, boasting that it met House Republicans “halfway” from the spending cuts in their bill. Since then, news organizations have repeatedly corrected Democrats that their bill cuts nowhere near that much. Indeed, the Washington Post’s Fact Checker blog awarded Democrats “two Pinocchios” for their absurd claim last week and today gives a third for President Obama repeating the claim over the weekend. “[T]he persistent claims of going ‘halfway’ when in fact Democrats have done little to engage Republicans on the issue will only hurt their credibility in the long run.”

Now, though, there is an official score from the Congressional Budget Office on the Democrat plan. According to the CBO, their bill cuts only $4.7 billion from a budget of over $1 trillion.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell expressed his frustration with Democrats’ lack of seriousness on getting spending under control in a floor speech today, “We’re averaging about $4 billion a day in debt this year, and Democrats want to cut $4.7 billion and call it a day. That’s their idea of getting serious. Washington will add more to the debt this week than they want to cut for the entire year — and that’s the farthest their leaders say they’re willing to go. . . . Last month alone the federal government spent $223 billion more than it had, the highest monthly deficit ever and the 29^th straight month Washington’s been in the red. And here’s the Democrats’ proposal: let’s cut $4.7 billion and call it a day. $4.7 billion dollars — even less than the President called for last week. And even that was ridiculed because of the preposterous claim that it met us halfway.”

Even some Democrat senators are saying they can’t go along with such irresponsible spending plans. As Politico reported, “Democratic leaders are having trouble just keeping moderates on board — Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) have also expressed skepticism that Democrats are willing to cut enough spending to satisfy voters and make a dent in the deficit.” McCaskill said, “I feel strongly that the cuts are not large enough, but there are some cuts, so I don’t know whether I’ll be for it or against it. . . . But I know it doesn’t go as far as we need to go.”

And Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) took to the Senate floor to blast the Democrat spending plan and President Obama’s failure to lead on spending. Manchin said the Democrat bill “utterly ignores our fiscal reality — our nation is badly in debt and spending at absolutely unsustainable and out-of-control levels. . . . We must turn our financial ship around, but the Senate proposal continues to sail forward as if there’s no storm on the horizon.” And he wondered, “Why are we doing all this when the most powerful person in these negotiations — our president — has failed to lead this debate or offer a serious proposal for spending and cuts that he would be willing to fight for?”

This is embarrassing. The American people deserve better than this.”

Related:

Rasmussen Reports: Generic Congressional Ballot: Republicans 45%, Democrats 39%

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