Just a short diary on yesterday’s passage of the debt ceiling suspension bill and what it revealed.
First, here’s the tally:
Democrats- 165 Yes 46 No 0 Present 2 Not Voting
Republicans- 149 Yes 71 No 0 Present 2 Not Voting
Independents- 0 Yes 0 No 0 Present 0 Not Voting
Totals- 314 Yes 117 No 0 Present 4 Not Voting
PASSED
Voting Details HERE.
So What Have We Learned?:
1. McCarthy committed the Cardinal Sin of Republican politics in that he violated the rule of all previous Republican Speakers since (I think)) Gingrich, in that he put a Bill on the floor that he could not pass solely with Republican votes. In fact he fell way short of the necessary 218 Republican votes and had to rely on a good chunk of Democrat votes to pass the Bill. He is an extremely weak Speaker presiding over a very fractured House Republican Caucus.
2. Hakeem Jeffries turns out to be an incredibly good vote wrangler. Not up to Nancy Pelosi standards, but close. He not only delivered enough Democrat votes to insure passage of the Bill, he outperformed McCarthy by 16 votes. Tough job when you consider that other than suspending the debt ceiling, there was nothing else in this Bill for Democrats to like.
3. Once again we learned to never underestimate Joe Biden. He somehow knew that McCarthy was bluffing in his default threat to blow up the economy, and really wanted to avoid it almost as much as Biden did. Biden consistent message that “default is not an option”, sent a signal to McCarthy that if you push me to the brink of default, I will 14th amendment your ass and you will get nothing. So Biden wisely held out for a deal that not only prevented economic catastrophe, but preserved his past legislative accomplishments and gave Republicans little of what they wanted. It left McCarthy with the laughable task of going before his Caucus to put lipstick on what to Republicans was obviously a pig. Way To Go Joe! May we never underestimate you again (but of course we will).
Now on to the Senate where a filibuster and the introduction of amendments are all but certain. We will just have to see how good Schumer is at beating the ticking Default Clock!