The Hill News

The Democrat atop the Senate's budget panel ramped up pressure on President Obama to weigh into the growing deficit and debt argument.

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee and a member of the president's fiscal commission, said that Obama must get involved if lawmakers are to have any hope of breaking an impasse over how to bring down U.S. debt.

"I believe, before this is done, it is going to require the involvement of the administration," Conrad said Thursday on MSNBC.

The top Democrat's words are indicative of how lawmakers are looking to the administration for guidance as to how to receive the recommendations of Obama's own fiscal commission, which formally proposed a series of spending cuts and tax reforms in its report on Wednesday.

If 14 of the 18 commissioners studying the fiscal situation endorse the plan, it will be sent to Congress for a vote. But that seems unlikely.

"I ! would be surprised if we get to 14," said Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), Conrad's counterpart on the Budget committee and another member of the fiscal commission.

The White House has been largely silent about its position on the fiscal commission, which Obama created via executive order. It may be waiting until commissioners vote on Friday on whether or not to endorse the recommendations. 

The North Dakota senator acknowledged that getting the 14 votes may be difficult, and said that he would be looking to the coming debate over raising the debt limit, along with next year's budget process, for opportunities to address the issue.

Conrad noted that Obama had shown "real leadership" by empaneling the commission, and leaned on fellow Democrats -- some of whom face tough reelections in 2012 -- to support the final recommendations, too.

"The only thing worse than being for this plan is being against it," he said of the politics.