The 48-50 vote rebuffed a White House plan to claw back some $15 billion in spending previously approved by Congress — a show of fiscal responsibility that was encouraged by conservative lawmakers outraged over a $1.3 trillion spending bill in March.
The House had approved the so-called rescissions package earlier this month. But passage had never been assured in the Senate, where a number of Republicans had been cool to the idea from the start.
Nevertheless, Wednesday’s outcome was startling because one of the opposing votes came from Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), who does not normally buck the White House or GOP leadership. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a moderate and one of the Republicans who most frequently side with Democrats, cast the other GOP vote against the cuts.
This is from a diary I posted yesterday, that the above story seems to be what I said could happen:
This article in WaPo by Kathleen Parker “Good Night GOP of Trump” signals how close we are to the end of his Svengali control of the Senate of the United States, for starters. The Meuller report, whether or not the FBI was biased, Trumps turning the Presidency into a conduit of vast wealth for he and his family, the absurd destruction of the infrastructure of our government, from international affairs to protecting the people from environmental pollution will all become irrelevant.
Trump has been able to use his consummate demagogic talents to transform every accusation against him into further uniting his base. Trump’s instincts, his connection with those who need a living savior and found one in him, have been nothing less than brilliant. He traffics in love and hate, with nothing in between. He loves American and God, and hates those from A__hole countries and liberals. The intensity of his hatred is a tacit threat of any who would consider the least deviation of their adulation of him.
His cult is held together by fear, irrational visceral fear of the punishment that awaits the betrayer. There is no other explanation why Senators Corker, Flake and even McCain, who will verbally criticize him, will not take that single step to proclaim they are no longer following the orders of this President. Even two out of the three, with the clear statement that they will support no legislation endorsed by President Trump would be the beginning of the end of the Donald J. Trump era.
Senators Corker and Flake know their time frame to go down in history is limited, as if they refrain from the statement of rejection of Trump as their leader, the risk is that another Republican Senator will do it first. They will then be relegated to the tremulous crowd that didn’t have the courage to confront an autocrat, even though doing so would not only within the compass of their elected office, but a moral obligation to their country.
I still believe that a shoe will drop within days. And Trump will be relegated to the caricature of demagogues whose reign became a footnote in the annals of history. If I am wrong, and he survives this expressed contempt of the vast majority of Americans for his flaunting cruelty to the most vulnerable, I shudder to think of
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These two Senators are the first Republican to overtly challenge a Trump supported bill, other than McCain who has not followed up after the first one.
These two men need to hear from Democrats to let them know that this vote was noticed and appreciated, and that this could be reflected in some votes from the “other side” that could balance the Presidents personal vendetta that they incurred by this vote. Let this be the beginning of the end of a a dark time in American, the Cult of Donald J. Trump