Monitoring the House and Senate Budget Committee debates on the Obama budget Wednesday was like listening to a bunch of kids point fingers at each other over who took the other's toy.

Democrats lectured the Republicans.

Republicans lectured the Democrats.

Democrats blamed the Bush Administration for a lack of fiscal discipline.

Republicans blamed the Democratic Congress for a lack of fiscal discipline.

And surprise, surprise - there wasn't much in the way of agreement on a way forward.

"You don't have to be broke out in brilliance to realize that we've inherited a terrible mess," said Rep. Marion Berry (D-Arkansas) as Democrats constantly blamed the Bush Administration for big budget deficits.

Republicans meanwhile said Democrats were to blame for the nation's economic mess, because Democrats have been in charge of the Congress since January of 2007.

Democrats blamed Republicans for taking the surpluses that Bill Clinton handed off an squandering those on tax cuts.

What's going to happen today is that the House and Senate Budget Committees will approve their respective budget outlines, with a few tweaks from what the White House wanted.

Then the real test will be next week, trying to convince more moderate to conservative Democrats to sign on.

Enough will and it will be approved most likely.

Then, we will get to the real battles later this year, when lawmakers actually work on the fine print of both spending and tax plans.

For now, Republicans are going to be on the outside looking in again.

That's what happens when you lose big two elections in a row.