U.S. Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri is blaming the current federal budget deadlock on the last Congress.
The Senate on Wednesday rejected a budget proposal approved by the Republican-controlled House, as well as an alternative favored by Democrats. Blunt, a Republican from Springfield, says the new Congress did not create this environment; the previous one, controlled by Democrats, did.
"They're still not coming to the table, the people that controlled the last majority, are still not coming to the table with anything that's close to reasonable," Blunt said. "You cannot have a $1.6 trillion deficit and not begin to take significant steps to do something about it."
Blunt says that as negotiations on a compromise continue, everything in the budget should be open for scrutiny.