"impose a requirement that key parts of the budget must be paid for with spending cuts or tax increases to prevent the federal deficit from increasing."This is called "Pay As You Go", and it's a discipline that was brought in at the urging and under the administration of President Bill Clinton.
Under the Bush administration, this approach was scrapped, enabling the turnaround from a massive budget surplus to the $1.3 Trillion deficit that President Obama inherited.
Now, with Obama's encouragement, the Senate has passed a bill imposing restrictions on itself - if they want to spend more, they have to find the money from elsewhere or raise taxes. If they want to cut taxes, they also need to cut spending or find efficiencies that match. It's neither a progressive nor a Conservative approach - it's a discipline and a responsibility.
Every single Senate Republican voted against it.
I'd like to know... why?