Here’s the breakdown on today’s House vote to pass the big, crappy deal to which there’s unfortunately no plausible alternative.
YES: 95 Dems, 174 GOP
NO: 95 Dems, 66 GOP
NV: 3 Dems
In the MA delegation, Tsongas, Keating, and Lynch voted yes. Everyone else – Olver, Tierney, Neal, Frank, Capuano, Markey, and McGovern – voted no. IMHO, either vote is defensible … the bill stinks, yet something has to pass. So, whatever.
Nobody in Washington has covered themselves in glory on this one. Talk about the kind of thing that makes people cynical about government. Exhibit A, right here, folks.
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fortleft says
Yesterday I saw the Herald cover which went something like this:
House: 0
Obama: 0
Senate: 0
No one has covered themselves with glory here. Can we concentrate on making sure the electorate understands that the tea party and the Republicans are the ones that drove us to this? Yes, the President who loves to compromise, (sometimes too much!) did what he did, but since Congress won’t want to cut defense so drasically, and medicare and medicaid cuts will be difficult, we much just get revenue in the end. Looking for a silver lining here.
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Jasiu says
I’ve heard some argue that this will force the Republicans to act like responsible adults in the ensuing budget/debt negotiations. But as Paul Krugman wrote yesterday, this is a bad assumption.
What the Republicans have done is identified another hostage. If they are willing to threaten the full faith and credit of the US, something the Republicans of my youth would never have done, what’s to stop them from threatening the funding of the troops in (insert your favorite theater of war here)?
If you don’t understand your adversary, you lose.