There's the Ryan Budget, the People's Budget, the Republican Study Committee Budget...but where's the Thread Budget? To the links, then!
- Just in case you missed it yesterday here. Ever seen a House vote end up losing by a count of 119-136? Well, you have now. There was a floor vote on the budget proposed by the Republican Study Committee—a budget even more draconian than the version proposed by Paul Ryan. It was designed to fail in the face of opposition by Democrats and moderate Republicans. But Steny Hoyer decided to do something clever:
At one point during the vote, a majority of Republicans were on record in favor of the RSC budget. Democrats then began casting votes as “present,” rather than “no,” as they would be expected to do. Without the Democratic "no" votes, the amendment would be adopted and would supersede Budget ranking member Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) ballyhooed budget.
After time for the vote expired, Republicans held it open so that enough of them could switch their votes to prevent the RSC budget from passing.
In the end, only 119 of the 176 RSC Members voted for their own budget proposal, authored by Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.). Because so many Democrats voted "present," meanwhile, the final tally was 136-119 against – a bizarre total in a chamber with 435 members.
So, the Republicans have become so extreme that they're switching their votes to prevent themselves from humiliating themselves. Good going, guys!
- No, there is no racist element whatsoever to the Tea Party. How dare you make that sort of accusation!
- Maybe the President should say things like this when everyone knows the mic is live:
That's when the president really opened up about his disdain for the recent GOP pushback:
"I said, 'You want to repeal health care? Go at it. We'll have that debate. But you're not going to be able to do that by nickel-and-diming me in the budget. You think we're stupid?'" the president said.
Obama also complained about GOP attempts to attach a bill to the resolution to fund the government that would defund women's health services provider Planned Parenthood.
"Put it in a separate bill," the president said he told House Speaker John Boehner and his staff, CBS reported. "We'll call it up. And if you think you can overturn my veto, try it. But don't try to sneak this through."
The president also made clear he is no fan of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the GOP's Budget Committee chairman.
"When Paul Ryan says his priority is to make sure... he's just being America's accountant and trying to be responsible-- this is the same guy that voted for two wars that were unpaid for, voted for the Bush tax cuts that were unpaid for, voted for the prescription drug bill that cost as much as my health care bill--but wasn't paid for," Obama said.
The problem, Mr. President, is that yes, they do think you're stupid. Or weak. So maybe a little more talk like this in public would be just what the doctor ordered.
- Digby:
This should be a really fun campaign if the Village openly buys into the idea that any defense of the social compact amounts to class warfare. But why wouldn't that be so --- TV announcers are among the highest paid people in the country. The last thing they want to talk about is some dull tale of a bunch of old losers and their health problems. Let's face it, this story of people being tossed out of their homes and Wall Street billionaires committing fraud and getting away with it and all this nonsense about the rich swallowing more and more of the nation's wealth for themselves is tiresome and old hat. We've heard it all before, ok, so let's move on shall we?
The new, exciting story is about how we have to slash the deficit as quickly as humanly possible by cutting spending and cutting taxes because it is the single greatest threat to America since the founding of the nation (or at least since terrorism got boring -- the last greatest threat since the founding of the nation.)
- The erstwhile classicist in me smiles, as California Governor Jerry Brown flashes his Latin to explain the need for increased tax revenues.