Chris Van Hollen on GOP budget: We’re not running out the door

Rep. Chris Van Hollen blasted a House GOP-authored budget Wednesday and then tried to take the high road, saying Democrats will at least go through the motions of marking up a fiscal blueprint after Republicans ignored President Obama’s proposal.

Earlier this year, the Budget Committee led by Rep. Tom Price, Georgia Republican, broke with tradition and declined to invite the White House’s budget writers to testify on their 2017 plan.

Mr. Van Hollen, Maryland Democrat who is running for Senate, accused the GOP of being too scared to even listen to the president’s vision.

As ranking member, he said his committee members will sit and work on a budget they view as “divisive” and unfair to seniors, college students and lower-income Americans.

“We’re not running out the door, we’re not refusing to listen,” Mr. Van Hollen said.

While Democrats fume over the plan, the House GOP’s most immediate opposition lies within its own caucus.

Republican leaders agreed to stick to the higher spending levels Mr. Obama is seeking in the $1.07 trillion blueprint that it released Tuesday, sparking a backlash from conservatives.

Factions such as the outspoken House Freedom Caucus and the Republican Study Committee have called for a fiscal 2017 budget that spends about $30 billion less, without short-changing defense.

The pushback poses a test for House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, who replaced John A. Boehner after a series of similar intra-party fights led to last-minute spending deals, ultimately forcing him out of the job.

The budget is nonbinding, but it serves as an outline Congress follows as it writes the dozen annual spending bills that fund most basic operations of government.

Earlier this month, the Senate Budget Committee acknowledged it will postpone any action on a fiscal 2017 budget, signaling the chamber will turn directly to the appropriations process under spending levels the parties agreed to in the fall.