About 16 hours ago, the marathon ended. After all of 583 amendments were either voted on, withdrawn or approved by voice vote, the House passed a fiscal 2011 spending bill that cuts about $60 billion in spending below current levels for the remaining seven months of the current fiscal year. Prorated for the year, that’s about $103 billion.
But even if this exact bill is adopted and signed by President Obama — which is very unlikely — it would only put a small dent in the projected $1.7 trillion deficit for fiscal 2011. The Senate will next have its say, and it is expected to come back with smaller cuts, with a final compromise to worked out in a House-Senate conference committee.
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Walter Jones of North Carolina, Jeff Flake of Arizona, and John Campbell of California were the only Republicans to vote against final passage of the bill. Otherwise, the vote was strictly along party lines.
