Senator: Deficit panel could slow budget process

Senate Budget Committee ranking member Judd Gregg, R-N.H., said Wednesday he believes that a panel established by President Obama to make recommendations this year to Congress on how to bring down the deficit could provide political cover for Democrats to skip a fiscal 2011 budget resolution.

"It certainly could," said Gregg, who is one of 18 members of the commission. "People could say 'We are waiting for the response to the deficit commission.' "

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., another deficit panel member, said he believes he has the support from the Democratic caucus to do an fiscal 2011 budget resolution, and the spending plan can complement the work of the commission.

"From talking to members ... they realize we have a responsibility to govern," Conrad said. "And we have a responsibility to take on this deficit, we've got a responsibility to show a blueprint that brings it down substantially over the next five years and then give the commission the responsibility that it has already been tapped with to develop the longer-term strategy and plan."

Conrad said he spoke with House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C., Wednesday morning and that Spratt said "he is fully committed to doing a budget as well."

Conrad's comments come after some budget experts and congressional Republicans speculated that Democrats may consider not doing a budget resolution this year to protect members from difficult votes ahead of the November midterm elections.

Gregg said Wednesday that he would not be surprised if Democrats did not do a resolution because "they would have to disclose...the fact that they are going to take this country down a road of massive debt."

Their comments come as the deficit commission will have its first meeting April 27, which Conrad expects to be mostly organizational in nature. Conrad said he hopes the meeting will "lay out the game plan" as well as address the panel's schedule, staffing and budget issues.

Under the executive order that established the commission, the recommendations - which are expected to include a raft of tax increases and spending cuts - will be presented to Congress by Dec. 1. Fourteen of the 18 members must agree on the final package, and House and Senate Democratic leaders have pledged to take up the recommendations before the end of the year.