Bill Nelson of Florida seems to be living in the real world:
Sen. Bill Nelson, a member of the Senate Budget Committee, said the Obama budget will have to be revised in light of the latest Congressional Budget Office projections.
The Florida Democrat said in an interview on Fox News Channel this morning that “we’re going to have to go back and rework this whole thing, and that’s going to be done this week in the Budget Committee.” He later added that “Kent Conrad, our chairman of the Budget Committee, is definitely going to have to be Merlin.” CBO numbers released Friday show federal deficits over the next decade will exceed President Barack Obama’s projections by $2.3 trillion.
Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat, had warned on Friday that cuts would be forthcoming. “The reality is, we are going to have to make adjustments to the president’s budget if we want to keep the deficit on a downward trajectory,” he said.
Nelson recognizes that Obama won’t be popular by the end of the year, and he can’t look like the White House’s stooge if he expects to get re-elected.