Community | April 15, 2011 | 36 comments

Dems call GOP’s bluff, force House Republicans to vote down their own budget

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moodyblue
"WASHINGTON – House Republicans scrambled Friday to vote down their own extremely conservative budget after Democrats called their bluff and withheld opposition, forcing GOP lawmakers to defeat the bill themselves.

The proposal, put forth by the Republican Study Committee, was a more extreme alternative to the plan offered by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI). It sought to make massive cuts to Social Security and Medicare while providing even larger tax breaks for high income earners.

A proposal like that would ordinarily have no chance of passing, typically earning total opposition from Democrats and dissent from enough Republicans. Yet voting on it would serve to please the GOP's right flank, while passage would tar the party with seeking to gut America's social safety net.

But, far from unified opposition, a total of 172 Democrats voted "present." That shocked Republicans, forcing some of them to flip their "yes" votes to "no" in order to defeat the bill that would otherwise have passed with a majority.

The measure ultimately failed 119-136"

Finally, the democrats have grown a pair. This is your GOP.. playing games.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/04/15/dems-call-gops-bluff-force-house-republica...
  1. groups:
    Community,   Business News & Analysis,   Economy,   Finance & Economics
  2. tags:
    Politics,  GOP tactics,  tactics,  parlimentary
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36 comments // Dems call GOP’s bluff, force House Republicans to vote down their own budget

  • artemis6
    • +1
      artemis6  

    • Just wanted to see if they would really hang themselves , given enough rope .....I have new respect for the strategist behind this . Hat's off /

    • 1 year ago
  • Warren_Merrill
    • -4
      Warren_Merrill  

    • The real story is you people think if Democrats play games it's in the best interest of the country. If Republicans play games it's playing politics and obstruction of the process. Did the bill ultimately pass? Yes.

      This board will be hilarious when all of you are out of your minds when the Republicans completely control Congress in 2013. You'll be outright suicidal if a Republican wins the White House too. At this point I'm not counting on the White House. Too much has to unfold.

    • 1 year ago
  • navider
    • +2
      navider  
    • Warren_Merrill:

      Good luck with that hypothesis warren. Remember that the pendulum swings. It's most likely it will be swinging back to the Dems after the public understands what the con budget plan really is.

      I don't think people will really like to eliminate medicare as we know it, to further privitize our government and give even more tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations who are already paying the lowest taxes since the 20's.

    • 1 year ago
  • moodyblue
    • +2
      moodyblue  
    • Warren_Merrill:

      Typical conservative, did you even read the damn article? Oy! THIS bill did NOT ultimately pass. It's not surprising that you find nothing wrong with republicans putting forth a bill and then voting against it. That says a lot about you.

      Republicans will not win the Senate and they will lose the house. Keep dreaming though.

    • 1 year ago
  • artemis6
  • Warren_Merrill
  • tlbuffin
  • moodyblue
  • Warren_Merrill
    • 0
      Warren_Merrill  
    • tlbuffin:

      Watch what independents think if you want a read on elections. I didn't say Obama would lose. The Senate will go Republican. It's too hard to read the presidential election this early. None of the Republicans have got serious and said anything worth saying or hearing. There's still plenty of time for a "throw the bum out" on Obama if he doesn't start leading instead of campaigning.

    • 1 year ago
  • tlbuffin
  • SFirman
  • artemis6
  • Warren_Merrill
  • Jeremy_Benson
    • +3
      Jeremy_Benson  

    • Well that's fantastic. I'm glad the GOPers are being called on their bullshit. But, I would also like to add sarcastically, thanks for doing it by playing a game of chicken with the livelihood of my country.

    • 1 year ago
  • BenjaminDover
  • MDBard
    • +3
      MDBard  

    • I can just imagine them running around with "Oh shit its gonna pass, it can't pass no no no no we'll be a laughing stock.....Damn you Democrats........"

    • 1 year ago
  • Mark701
    • +5
      Mark701  

    • Very cool move. The GOP was pushing hard at the door so the Dems opened it and watched them fall all over themselves. This reveals the GOP budget for what it was, a political ploy.

    • 1 year ago
  • KB723
  • UtopianSky
    • +5
      UtopianSky  

    • Yeah! Democrats finally acting like a single unified party!
      If only they can keep doing that, we just might have some progress!

    • 1 year ago
  • NickerBocker09
  • bambuu
    • +8
      bambuu  

    • I'm still trying to figure out why Bachmann voted "nay" with Pelosi and the Dems on the original minuscule $38 billion deal but voted "yea" to abolish medicare by voting for Ryancare's Path to Poverty?

      But now has to go in front of her supporters and constituents and tell them why she voted to abolish their medicare; in fact all of them have too. I'm sure those in her audience receive medicare but then Bachmann will lie and blame Obama and she'll get $500,000K for that. Which is amazing to me.

      We had the tea party ranting from coast to coast for 2 years saying "don't touch my medicare [Obama]" which he hasn't, but they go and vote people right into office who did just the opposite and abolished their medicare....I'm speechless!!

      They need to lay-off the kochcain for a while.

    • 1 year ago
  • ZiggyStrange
    • +9
      ZiggyStrange  

    • IMHO.

      This is a very good thing.

      This signals Democrats are acting in a way that strengthens the President's bargaining position.

      This way there is no question about who is playing games, and who is legislating instead of log jamming, or sending insane bills to the senate.

      Republicans will have to rethink their tactics, and really piss off the Tea Parties.

      I believe this is all part of the Obama Lame Duck rope a dope, then corner and gut the Republican agenda strategy. Republican/Tea Party chaos to ensue. By end of Summer the progressive base should be strong, and motivated enough to demand Senators, and Representatives do the right thing or else.

      The Tea Parties should fragment further and weaken the Republicans.

      So far it's like a script.

      How much do you want to bet the next 2 big things that come to the forefront are immigration, and Labor after the May raising the Debt Ceiling negotiations get done in time. No default in sight as it would be catastrophic.

      The Republicans will cave. Taxes will go up, and the economy will further improve. Republicans will lose much of the support they have from Hispanics over the immigration reform negotiations, and Republican attempts to deceive them, which they will.

      All the while the Republican Presidential candidate parade of morons will continue to be a freak show.

      I hope my post proves prophetic. It can happen.

      Cheers!

    • 1 year ago
  • bambuu
    • +3
      bambuu  
    • ZiggyStrange:

      I stated it would be immigration and gay rights that would be the next issues the gop/tea party takes on.

      With that said and you're the first person who also said immigration so I believe it would be to the Dems advantage to take that on. Because down in Florida, they are having big time gop buyers remorse and with immigration, Rubio would come into play. And we already know what he said and how he feels about the tea party. Since, it was the Obama administration that eased restrictions for family visits to Cuba.

    • 1 year ago
  • ZiggyStrange
    • +2
      ZiggyStrange  
    • bambuu:

      Hi Bambuu,

      That was my first choice. In December I was saying it would be Immigration and DOMA.
      But now then Walker blew up Labor, that should be the one to take political precedence. He can save DOMA for 2012. About Rubio, they miscalculated. Cubans are by far the least popular Hispanics among Hispanics. Marco Rubio has little chance of a Dominican, or Central / South American seeing him as "their" guy. I have lived in a few Latin American countries. Personally i have no issues with Cubans but they are not a popular group among Hispanics.

      We're on the same page. It could go either way, Gay and Hispanic votes these days outnumber Labor, but I think they will save one of those for 2012.

      Cheers +^d

    • 1 year ago
  • twinite
  • tlbuffin
  • SFirman
  • northernexpat
    • +5
      northernexpat  

    • This is great, but the GOP also managed to approval Paul Ryan's budget today which will kill medicare and medicaid. There were only 4 GOPer smart enough to realized that Ryan's budget hurts the fabric of the country and voted no along with all the Democrats.

    • 1 year ago
  • SFirman
  • lazloman
  • Milieu
    • +5
      Milieu  

    • Finally, they are learning to stand up to the bully. Normally, You have to hit the bully to make him stop.

      Getting him to hit himself is way cooler.

    • 1 year ago
  • Leen61
    • +7
      Leen61  

    • Wow....the Dems finally realized this is a political fight they can win with the voters? Amazing. I'll take it! Cool!

    • 1 year ago
  • Richard_Wyatt
  • Wicks934
  • timetide
  • chew_chew
    • +8
      chew_chew  

    • This is hilarious! It was the Republicans who voted down their own budget! Hilarious!

      The Dems may finally be learning how to stand up to the bully. So cool.

    • 1 year ago
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