Compromise on the Budget? Not SBC Ranking Republican Jeff Sessions

Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee and, therefore, one of the people most responsible for developing a budget resolution. So when Sessions says that he doesn't see much room for compromise, as he did last week on the Bloomberg Television show "Political Capital with Al Hunt," you have to sit up and take notice.

You can find the interview here:www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-12/sessions-on-budget-negotiations-political-capital-with-al-hunt.html

In one sense Sessions' Don't-compromise-till-you-see-the-whites-of-their-eyes position isn't a shock at all.  He is, after all, a conservative from one of the most conservative states in the country.  But it is a shock in the sense of what it tells you about the state of the budget debate in Washington.  I started my budget career as an intern with the Senate Budget Committee when Henry Bellmon (R-OK), as the ranking Republican, thought he had a responsibility to make the budget process work and working with the chairman -- Ed Muskie (D-ME) to get a budget resolution adopted was one of his jobs.  That clearly isn't the case now.