Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., indicated that Senate Democrats would renege on their promise to pass the first budget in four years if Republicans did not agree to raise taxes in order to avert the automatic spending cuts mandated by sequestration.

“Senator Murray is working on a budget right now and we hope we can get that done,” Reed said on CNN, referring to Senate Budget Committee chairman Patty Murray, D-Wash. “But we need time. So the sequestration will prevent — preempt us from getting a budget done and other factors.”

Reed also defended the Senate for refusing to pass a budget since Obamacare passed into law. “We had the Budget Control Act of 2011, which set the caps, which is actually statutory, not just a resolution between the two houses,” he said.

That defense, though, came moments after he expressed a longing “to get back into regular order, [by] proposing a budget, doing an appropriations bill.”