Jeff Sessions

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."

The people at Public Notice have a new, 30-second television ad excoriating the U.S. Senate on the third anniversary since the body last passed a budget. The ad, which will air on D.C.-area broadcasts and on national cable stations on Sunday, urges senators to "stop pointing fingers and start doing your job." Watch the ad below:

Senate Budget Committee chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) indicated late Monday he was prepared to hold a markup on a budget proposal Wednesday afternoon. But at a press conference in the Capitol on Tuesday, Conrad said tomorrow would only be “the beginning of a markup” and that a vote on the budget likely won't happen until after the November election.

It has been 1,000 days since the Senate has produced a budget, and congressional Republicans are getting fed up.

According to the Budget Control Act, the 12-member Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, or the so-called supercommittee, must be formed within 14 days of the bill becoming law. Since President Obama just signed the law, Congress has until August 16, two weeks from today, to fill the slots. The next question Democrats and Republicans will need to answer is, which of their members will they select for the supercommittee? 

Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the ranking member on the Budget Committee, spoke today on the Senate floor about his plan to raise points of order against all appropriations bills until the Senate passes a budget. Here's an excerpt of Sessions's remarks explaining the procedure:

Imagine the reaction if President Obama and congressional Democrats had released a sweeping health care bill, drafted in closed-door meetings, and demanded its approval by Congress immediately. There would have been national outrage over the secrecy, lack of time for public hearings, and the absence of discussion, revisions, amendments, and multiple votes.

Yesterday, Harry Reid cancelled a planned Senate recess for the week of July 4, which Republican senators such as Jeff Sessions and Marco Rubio had been pushing, since the government is rapidly approaching the debt ceiling deadline of August 2.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned today that the United States is on dangerous economic ground if it does not reduce its budget deficit soon:

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund cut its forecast for U.S. economic growth on Friday and warned Washington and debt-ridden European countries that they are "playing with fire" unless they take immediate steps to reduce their budget deficits....

Senator Jeff Sessions, arguing against what is now a meme on the left (that the stimulus didn't work because it was too small):

Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the ranking member of the Budget Committee, yesterday announced that he would be blocking a set of unanimous consent measures this week in protest of the Senate Democrats, who don't have a budget plan for the 2012 fiscal year.

Senate Budget Committee chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) has again delayed the introduction and markup of a budget proposal, according to the Hill. Conrad says he will defer that part of the process until after the bipartisan talks led by Vice President Joe Biden conclude: