The renegers
Democrats are disavowing prospects for any "grand bargain," offering nothing more than hope that a limited deal to shut off sequestration, the automatic budget cuts agreed to during the 2011 debt ceiling negotiations, might be on the table.
The new budget conference committee, a panel of 22 senators and seven representatives, is a byproduct of the agreement to end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling.
That continuing resolution kept the government funded through January 15 and created a bipartisan, bicameral budget conference that must present a proposed budget to Congress by December 13.
Democrats remain focused on the sequester.
Near the end of the shutdown, Republicans floated the idea of an extended continuing resolution—one that would have kept the government funded through much of 2014.
Democrats balked, only agreeing to keep the government funded through January to avoid the next round sequestration cuts.
Democrats intend to stick with that same demand if no deal has been reached by the time funding next expires.
They've conceded that the level of deficit reduction mandated by sequestration is here to stay but want to redirect those cuts by reducing other programs.
According to a Senate aide involved in the negotiations, Democrats won't agree to any continuing resolution that locks in sequestration’s onerous cuts for the rest of the year.
Instead, should the new conference fail, Democrats will insist on more short-term continuing resolutions.
Democrats believe they'll hold the upper hand should Republicans insist on maintaining sequestration.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/10/democrats-sequestration-budget-committee