These guys, again?
On Thursday, the House
passed the Murray-Ryan budget deal, sending it over to the Senate. Now, CBS
says:
...in a deviation from the usual patterns in Washington, the bipartisan agreement may have a harder path in the Senate, where lawmakers are typically less averse to compromise than their House counterparts.
Because:
[Senate Majority Whip Dick] Durbin predicted Democrats will need “about eight” Republicans to vote with them in favor of the deal. Because Democrats control 55 votes in the Senate (that includes two independents who usually vote with them), that means Durbin is likely counting on a few Democratic senators voting “no” on the deal.
If Durbin is talking about final passage, I'm not buying this at all: Democrats would have to lose 13 votes before they needed eight Republican votes to achieve the 50 votes needed for final passage. It's somewhat more plausible that they would need eight Republican votes to defeat a filibuster, but it would still be pretty surprising if Democrats couldn't maintain caucus unity on a procedural vote, meaning they would need five, not eight votes.
That being said, so far Sen. John McCain is the only Republican who has said he will vote for the budget. Unless Democrats deploy the nuclear option for legislation or a handful of Republicans vote to end the filibuster either because they support the budget deal or merely because they want to move forward, then the budget deal might be in jeopardy after all.
Whatever ends up happening, one thing is for sure: 1.3 million Americans will lose their emergency unemployment insurance benefits starting on January 1, because Congress couldn't see fit to extend them past the end of the year.