After weeks of anticipation, it looks like
the Senate will finally vote on Paul Ryan's Medicare-destroying budget this afternoon:
The Senate will vote on the House-passed budget plan sponsored by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) Wednesday afternoon, putting Republicans in a tough spot over Medicare.
The Senate will vote on four budget plans after 5 p.m., including Ryan’s blueprint and budget plans introduced by Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), according to a senior Democratic leadership aide. ...
At the insistence of Republican leaders, the Senate will also vote on the budget plan that President Obama sent to Capitol Hill earlier this year.
This is going to be a great roll call to watch. Several Republicans up for re-election this cycle have already said they'd vote no, including Scott Brown of Massachusetts and Olympia Snowe of Maine, and and at least one has confirmed he'll vote yes: Indiana's Dick Lugar. Snowe and Lugar are fascinating mirror images: Snowe's nay will expose her to more risk in the GOP primary (where one poll already showed her in potential trouble), while Lugar's thumbs-up might save him in his own primary but will hurt him in the general election. It's a classic case of damned if you do, damned if you don't — but no matter how it shakes out overall, Democrats will still be able to press the issue to their advantage.