From CBS News online, 174 Republicans (73% of the 240) and 95 Democrats (49% of the 193) voted for the bill to raise the debt ceiling with all sorts of prerequisites and a poison pill.
First reaction: Republicans ought to be happy, considering they got nearly everything they wanted, except a requirement for the passage of the balanced budget amendment. Perhaps that 27% that voted against it, were those die-hard Tea Party Republicans?
Second reaction: Obviously Democrats were put in a hard place, and of their own choosing, when Reid conceded nearly every Democratic principle to get McConnell to sign on. If you vote for it, you're voting for a very clear move to the far-Right, but if you vote against it, Republicans will hold it against you, saying that you voted for the US to default.
Third reaction: As word finally leaks out that the wars are off the budgetary caps, those who voted for this bill may be voted out, on the Democratic side. This will be especially true if Medicare is sliced by the poison pill in November. Again, Republicans don't have to lift a finger and Medicare will be sliced. The counter-argument was that defense would also be sliced, but if troops come home, defense will be sliced anyway. And if you read Rand and Ron Paul closely, they were both against the Bush Wars from the start, so it's not like Tea Party folks were arguing against defense spending cuts.
Fourth reaction: I guess I was wrong. I didn't think it would get passed, but when the Chamber of Commerce and bank CEOs got into the action and began applying heat to Republicans, the dynamics of the situation changed quite a bit. Republicans got off their Cut Cap and Balance high horse and settled for Cut and Cap.
Fifth reaction: If the deadline was a month away, this bill would be dead.
No comments:
Post a Comment