This, folks, is how you play the game.
The vote was on the Republican Study Committee's alternative budget -- a radical plan that annihilates the social contract in America by putting the GOP budget on steroids. Deeper tax cuts for the wealthy, more severe entitlement rollbacks.
Normally something like that would fail by a large bipartisan margin in either the House or the Senate. Conservative Republicans would vote for it, but it would be defeated by a coalition of Democrats and more moderate Republicans. But today that formula didn't hold. In an attempt to highlight deep divides in the Republican caucus. Dems switched their votes -- from "no" to "present."
TPM: Pandemonium
Wait - voting present? What does that do?
Panic ensued. In the House, legislation passes by a simple majority of members voting. The Dems took themselves out of the equation, leaving Republicans to decide whether the House should adopt the more-conservative RSC budget instead of the one authored by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan. As Dems flipped to present, Republicans realized that a majority of their members had indeed gone on the record in support of the RSC plan -- and if the vote closed, it would pass. That would be a slap in the face to Ryan, and a politically toxic outcome for the Republican party.
Score: Nancy 100, John 0. This is EPIC.
In the end, the plan went down by a small margin, 119-136. A full 172 Democrats voted "present."
We still have 119 Republicans on record as having voted for a plan more conservative than Ryan's.
TPM promises video soon. I wait eagerly.Updated by blue aardvark at Fri Apr 15, 2011 at 11:49 AM MST
Huffington post has the video
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Updated by blue aardvark at Fri Apr 15, 2011 at 11:51 AM MST
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) switched her vote from "aye" to "no" at the last minute, as did Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Rules Committee. Per Huffpost
Updated by blue aardvark at Fri Apr 15, 2011 at 01:25 PM MST
Per TPM
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/...
It was Steney Hoyer's idea.