The Hill News

Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) both said they were hopeful a budget agreement could be reached before the current continuing resolution expires on April 8, but each put the onus on the other's party to avoid a government shutdown.

Warner said that the negotiations had to move past social policy riders proposed by Republicans but which Democrats have said are unacceptable.

"What kind of message do we send to this world if we’re saying we’ve agreed on our top line budget number â€" in terms of what we’re going to cut this year â€" but then we’re going to have these extraneous factors come in that have nothing to do with budget â€" the so-called policy riders â€" and that causes a shutdown?" Warner asked on CNN's "State of the Union." "I don’t think the American people will accept that."

Cornyn said the Republicans, through the party's majority in the House, had already done their part.

"I think it’s up to Harry Rei! d," Cornyn said. "I hope we can solve the problem because frankly people are looking for a little adult interaction and are interested in solutions to our debt and our deficit instead of games and it looks like that’s what we’re getting."

Both senators said there were larger budgetary issues to handle which were not covered in the current year's budget negotiations, which is focused on discretionary spending. The budget for fiscal 2012, they said, was more important and needs to tackle entitlement spending and tax reform.

"This is small ball compared to the big issues," Cornyn said.