Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., says both Democrats and Republicans are “sick and tired” of two- and three-week budgets. Instead, he says, Congress needs to create a budget that is more forward-looking, one that plots “a course for the next 10 years.”
“We’re not going to solve the budget deficit in six or seven months,” Durbin said Monday morning on MSNBC. “And if we try, we’re going to do some awful things.”
Durbin, a member of the bipartisan group of senators known as the “Gang of Six” that is meeting to discuss deficit reduction, said that the United States cannot afford to keep borrowing 40 cents for every dollar spent.
“At some point, the bond dealers will decide the future of America,” he said. “We better step in before that happens.”
But, Durbin would not say whether Democrats would be willing to give in to GOP demands to touch Social Security.
“Including Social Security makes it increasingly difficult to bring the votes together, particularly in the Democratic Senate caucus,” he said. “It’s politically explosive.”
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