When President Obama released his administration’s final budget request on Tuesday morning, it was an even more futile exercise than in years past. After outlining the policy priorities of his final year in office during last month’s State of the Union and releasing a series of previews of his proposals for the last couple of weeks, Congressional Republicans had already decided they didn’t have to bother to do their job and review the budget before outright rejecting it.

In a break with a 41-year-old tradition dating back to the start of the modern budget process in 1975, the Republican chairmen of the House and Senate budget committees announced last week that they wouldn’t bother to host the president’s budget director, Shaun Donovan, to present the president’s entire budget in a hearing before Congress.

Vermont Independent and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who has ruffled some feathers on Capitol Hill with his denouncement of Hillary Clinton’s congressional support as “the establishment,” lead Senate Democrats in railing against the Republicans’ breach of decorum today after their counterparts in the House decried the GOP’s move earlier this week.

“The president’s budget is more than a political document; it is a compilation of the opinions of experts throughout the government,” Sanders, the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, wrote in a letter with his Democratic colleagues (and Angus King) to Sen. Enzi. Sanders and the Senate Democrats said they were “disappointed” and “dismayed” with the Republicans’ behavior.

"Killary Rotten Clintscum"

Union and the Bernie Sanders campaign say they've resolved their issues after a kerfuffle earlier Thursday had the group at odds with the Vermont senator's presidential operation in a key early voting state.

The union had accused Bernie Sanders' campaign staffers of posing as union workers in an attempt to gain access to their members, a charge the Sanders campaign denied.
The union and Sanders campaigners later said the issue, which was first reported by Ralston Reports' Jon Ralston, had been settled.

Jeff Weaver, Sanders' campaign manager, said Thursday -- after the statement from culinary was released -- that his understanding is that none of the staffers "ever misrepresented who they were."

Union and the Bernie Sanders campaign say they've resolved their issues after a kerfuffle earlier Thursday had the group at odds with the Vermont senator's presidential operation in a key early voting state.

The union had accused Bernie Sanders' campaign staffers of posing as union workers in an attempt to gain access to their members, a charge the Sanders campaign denied.
The union and Sanders campaigners later said the issue, which was first reported by Ralston Reports' Jon Ralston, had been settled.

Jeff Weaver, Sanders' campaign manager, said Thursday -- after the statement from culinary was released -- that his understanding is that none of the staffers "ever misrepresented who they were."

"Free college education, free college education for people illegally in this country, free healthcare, free everything."

Frontrunner Donald Trump agreed with Rubio, separately live tweeting about how Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Martin O’Malley, Jim Webb, and Lincoln Chafee spent the entire night discussing all the free stuff they were going to give away, including ObamaCare benefits and tuition breaks for illegal immigrants.