Updated 2 p.m. edt
As expected, the Senate rejected today what Democrats said was a draconian House plan to cut government spending, raise the federal debt limit and amend the constitution to include a balanced budget amendment.
Senators voted 51 to 46 along party lines to defeat the measure known as the "cut, cap and balance" bill.
President Obama had vowed to veto the bill had it passed in the Senate.
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President Obama finds himself at odds today with senior congressional Democrats, who are angry at him over concessions to Republicans in debt-ceiling talks, further complaining that they are being at left out of the negotiations.
Obama and House Speaker John Boehner are reportedly discussing a plan that could include up to $3 trillion in spending cuts, but would delay implementing much of the tax and revenue provisions, congressional aides said.
Democrats do not like the deal.
At an often testy two-hour meeting yesterday with White House budget chief Jack Lew, Democrats protested -- loudly -- that the White House was undercutting their re-election hopes with the Social Security and Medicare giveaways that the President has proposed.
Veteran Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, a former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, complainted to The Washington Post that the Tea Party convinced Obama "to go along with a deal that basically gives them everything they want but yet still takes away from those who are our most vulnerable."
But the smart money says Democrats have little to fear: Obama is banking that the GOP will not take him up on his his latest Machiavellian offer to tinker with Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Aug. 2 is the drop-dead deadline for a deal to keep the U.S. from defaulting on its loan payments. If there is no serious progress made in talks this weekend it diminishes the chance of a comprehensive deal.
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