The bipartisan effort to come up with a budget deficit reduction plan by the “gang of six” senators has stalled with the withdrawal of Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. In the wake of that development,
The Hill has put together a list of winners and losers from the group’s apparent collapse. Here are excerpts.
Winners
Grover Norquist: The president of Americans for Tax Reform had urged Coburn to bolt, maintaining that Democrats would accept only a deal that includes tax increases.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell: They both opposed the idea of the gang of six, who escaped their control.
Losers
Democratic gang members
Sens. Kent Conrad of North Dakota and
Mark Warner of Virginia: They worked hard to keep the group together. It may not be too big a deal for Warner, a freshman, but Conrad is retiring next year and hoped to make a budget agreement part of his swan song.
Republican gang members
Sens. Mike Crapo of Idaho and
Saxby Chambliss of Georgia: They’re trying to continue talks, but in Coburn’s absence, they’re the ones receiving conservatives’ objections.