By Larry Bivins

Gannett Newspapers

Jan. 25, 2012

Steve Bell, a former Senate Budget Committee staff director now with the Bipartisan Policy Center, said the fights last year over legislation to avert government shutdowns are the result of not having a budget blueprint.

"It's very difficult for appropriations committees to pass individual spending bills because they don't have a blueprint," Bell said.

But Bell said he doubted Johnson would support a Senate budget resolution regardless of whether it was crafted by Republicans or Democrats.

"The fact of the matter is there isn't a budget resolution that the committee could put together that Mr. Johnson would vote for," Bell said. "He wouldn't vote for a budget with large deficits, and reducing the size of the deficit would require cuts to Social Security and Medicare, and he wouldn't vote for that either."

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Economic Policy Project