Last night, Democrats failed for a third time to move their “extenders” package, which includes tax increases, extensions of unemployment benefits, and $30 billion in new debt.
The futile vote on cloture, taken last night instead of this morning so that senators could get out of town today, was 57-41, short of the 60 votes needed for cloture. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., voted against.
At any time, the Dems can pass a bill with Republican votes to spare by simply paying for the new spendineng out of unspent stimulus funds, but the stimulus, as ineffective as it has been, has become a sacred cow for them and for the administration.
Part of the David Plouffe-White House strategy for this fall’s election is to run on and not from the stimulus package. If Democrats start looting it now so that they can actually pay for their spending, how will they argue this fall that it saved the economy from ruin?
That’s why it’s Groundhog Day in the Senate. They keep doing it over and over again, and the sense of inability to govern that Byron cites exists here no less than within the administration.
