Vitter predicts contentious budget cycle

U.S. Sen. David Vitter told members of the Rotary Club of Baton Rouge today that the federal government’s spending patterns and mounting debt—equivalent to $45,000 for every man, woman and child in the country, up from $30,000 per head two years ago—are about to collide. “This is really building to a significant showdown,” says Vitter, a Republican from Metairie. The collision is expected as the debate over increasing the federal debt limit concludes in August or possibly earlier, he says. The House rejected a measure Tuesday to boost the ceiling by $2.4 trillion. The previous Democrat-controlled Congress hiked the limit three times for a cumulative $2.979 trillion increase. “The answer is to deal with the underlying issues, which are spending and the debt. I really don’t know how this is going to turn out,” Vitter says. Vitter went on to criticize Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat. “He’s not putting any budget on the Senate floor. I think that’s a political decision,” Vitter says. As for what might break the stalemate, he suggested that either a new Senate or a compromise on the debt ceiling—the latter being the more likely scenario—could put a budget on the move in the upper chamber. “That [compromise] would almost have to include budget numbers for the next two years,” Vitter says. —Jeremy Alford