GWEN IFILL:

For the Republican view from Capitol Hill, I'm joined now by Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley. He serves on the Senate Budget and Finance Committees, as well as the Joint Committee on Taxation.

Welcome, Senator.

The president said today that he welcomes GOP ideas, but that the numbers have to add up. What is your reaction to his budget?

SEN. CHARLES GRASSLEY, (R) Iowa: Well, first of all, I think you have to look at not only this budget, but past budgets that have been put before the Congress for a specific vote.

And, in most instances, maybe every instance over the last five or six years, there hasn't been one Republican or one Democrat vote to approve of the president's budget. So I think you have to look at it that this budget put forth by the president isn't serious, but even if it were a serious budget, the president proposes and Congress disposes.

There's obviously going to be some areas where the president and the Congress would agree, like, for instance, not having sequestration because of national defense because of — for national defense, because national defense is the number one responsibility of the federal government.

So I think you're going to find more spending on defense. That area, we agree with the president of the United States. But in other areas of domestic spending, I think that you're going to find sequestration, if it isn't followed, it surely isn't going to be modified to the extent that the president wants to modify it.

And I will stop with this, by saying you can't consider a budget, as the OMB director said, reducing spending by $1.8 trillion, when it actually increases the deficit from $18 billion to $26 billion over a period of these 10 years.

That's an $8 trillion increase in the debt, and the president has already increased the national debt since he's been president by at least $6 trillion.