Senate Democrats and Republicans unanimously rejected President Obama's proposed budget this afternoon. The final vote tally was 99-0.
Likewise, the House also unanimously rejected the budget in March.
Prior to the vote, Senate Budget Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions blasted the budget. "It was voted 414-0 in the House this year," said Sessions. I suspect in an hour or so it will go down again on the floor of the Senate by unanimous vote. That speaks a lot. That says a lot. It indicates the sad state of affairs in which we are in. It's deeply disappointing."
"For three consecutive years now, the Senate majority has refused to bring a budget of their own to the floor or to even put forward the President’s in its place," Sessions said in advance of the budget vote. "For two consecutive years, they’ve canceled the legally required committee meetings to work on a budget."
This vote was called by the Republicans, not Democrats.
UPDATE: Here's Sessions's most up to date statement on the Senate vote:
"Today, before the whole nation, the majority party running the Senate effectively declared that as long as they’re in charge this country will not have a budget.
"Their message is simple: send Washington more money. Don’t ask us what we’ll do with it. They’re determined to avoid public accountability as our nation spends its way to financial catastrophe.
"The decision by all Democrats to vote against all budgets, to stop the full budget debate the Senate is required by law to have, reflects their support for Majority Leader Reid’s view that to have a budget is ‘foolish’. It is a vote of the entire caucus to keep this nation on our unsustainable debt course."
UPDATE II: Mitt Romney's policy director, Lanhee Chen, responds: "President Obama is so unserious about the budget challenges facing our nation that his budget proposal has now been voted down unanimously in not only the House, but also the Democrat-controlled Senate. With more than five hundred members of Congress opposing his budget – and not a single one willing to support it – this President’s failures of leadership and fiscal responsibility are obvious to everyone. President Obama is clearly in over his head and incapable of leading the country. It is time to turn to Mitt Romney’s proven experience and leadership."
