Reasonable people can disagree about the utility and efficacy of a federal stimulus bill right now, but on the whole, the Senate approach seems preferable to the deal reached between the White House and House leaders. The Senate version, for example, in addition to tax rebates, included an extension of unemployment benefits, increased subsidies for home energy costs, and increased relief for low-income seniors and disabled veterans. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a pretty good bill.
Senate Republicans, true to form, filibustered the stimulus package. Senate Dems picked up some GOP votes — most notably from some Republicans seeking re-election this year — but came one vote short.
By a single vote, Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked an expansive fiscal stimulus package championed by Democrats, as partisan rancor engulfed the effort to inject a quick burst of spending into the slowing economy.
The package needed 60 votes under Senate rules to move forward but failed 58 to 41, with 8 Republicans joining 48 Democrats and 2 independents in support of it. The majority leader, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, switched his vote to no from yes at the last second, a parliamentary move that lets him control the next steps on the bill.
Looking over the roll call, all 49 Dems voted for the stimulus, along with both independents (Lieberman and Sanders), and eight Republicans (Coleman, Collins, Dole, Domenici, Grassley, Smith, Snowe, and Specter). Forty conservatives supported the filibuster, blocking an up-or-down vote.
If you do the math, that’s 99 votes (including both Obama and Clinton, who stayed off the campaign trail to cast the votes). And who didn’t show up for work? It’s an interesting story.
Senator John McCain of Arizona, the leading Republican presidential candidate, returned to Washington fresh off his string of victories in Tuesday’s voting, but he did not appear in the Senate chamber and did not vote. Adding to the partisan rancor, Democrats immediately questioned his whereabouts and seemed poised to blame him personally, and Republicans generally, for stalling the bill.
Aides to Mr. McCain said that he would have sided with the Republican leaders and that his vote was not needed.
It was an interesting response given what the senator has been telling voters.
John McCain (R-AZ) has been repeatedly claiming on the stump that passing an economic stimulus package is at the very top of his agenda. He has told audiences that the “first thing we gotta do is pass the stimulus package through the Senate.” During a Jan. 24 GOP debate, he explicitly pledged to vote on such legislation when it reached the Senate. Watch McCain make this promise on repeated occasions:
As recently as this morning, McCain again told reporters that he planned on returning to the Senate for this evening’s vote on the economic stimulus, stating that Congress needed to quickly pass legislation.
The measure, blocked by conservatives, fell just one vote short of the 60 needed to end debate. At the “last minute,” McCain decided to skip the vote, even though his plane landed in DC in time. McCain claimed that he was “too busy.”
He added that he was “focused on other stuff.”
The reality, of course, is far different. He was in DC, and could have voted, but found it easier to take a pass. If he voted with the bipartisan majority, he’d make the conservative Republican base mad. If he voted with the right, Dems would spend the next nine months beating him over the head with his vote against tax rebates, an extension of unemployment benefits, increased subsidies for home energy costs, and increased relief for low-income seniors and disabled veterans.
So he decided not to show up for work.
Remind me again about how courageous John McCain is?