Senate Dems Rebel on Spending Cuts
The real surprise in Wednesday's Senate spending bill votes was the total failure of Harry Reid to keep his own caucus in line.
The failure of both Democratic and Republican spending cut proposals in the Senate wasn't much of a surprise. The Republican proposal--a huge exercise in chutzpa that tried to undo virtually every major Obama administration policy through a budget measure--was never a serious one anyway. The Democratic proposal, a very modest--.18 percent of the federal budget--proposal was serious (in that it could have been signed into law) but would have done nothing, even symbolically, to rein in the huge deficit.
The one real surprise, however, was the total failure of Harry Reid--typically a pretty good vote counter--to keep his own caucus in line. In all, ten Democrats and one independent member of the Democratic caucus voted against the package that Democrats proffered. Since most of these "nay" votes came from more centrist members of the party--Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska), Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia)--were both nays, it shows that Republicans might well be able to muster 60 votes for a credible spending cut package. (Only one truly left-wing Senator, Vermont Bernie Sanders, voted against the package.) And, for those that favor fiscal restraint, this is very good news.