By Paul M. Krawzak, ROLL CALL
Senate Budget Chairwoman Patty Murray wants Republicans to engage in budget negotiations to replace the sequester before the August recess, saying bipartisan talks provide the only way for the parties to agree on higher defense spending levels.
In a memo to fellow Democrats last week, the Washington senator said the “case for austerity as a fiscal policy in the United States has dissolved,” adding that if Republicans want to preserve defense spending at their preferred $552 billion level in fiscal 2014 they will have to change current law, a move that would require Democrats to agree.