The writers of Hollywood are on strike. They are trying to imitate the demands of blue-collar workers: better pay, better job security. Washington writers are always searching for the same thing–this writer has both. Why not add a little more job security to your career by dressing up some political issues or overcomplicating them ever so slightly?
Okay, let’s be honest. I am being cheeky. The problems of our country are complex. So are the solutions. Politics can be simple at times. If more members of one political party vote for a bill than the opposing party, then it is safe to assume the bill will benefit one party over the other. It’s likely that the party who supported that bill will win if it becomes law. Even more impressive is when a minority party manages this feat.
This is exactly what happened with the recent debt ceiling. Despite the fact that I have written in -length for this magazine about the complex negotiations and the inside baseball, it is clear that more Democrats than Republicans supported the deal reached by President Joe Biden with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
The House voted 165-46 in favor of the deal on the debt ceiling. Two members did not vote. Republicans voted 149 in favor, 71 against–again, two not voting.
Chuck Scumer’s Senate repeated the story. The Senate did not influence or shape any part of the debate on debt ceiling. Rep. Scott Perry told me previously, “We (House Republicans) passed the bill [the Limit, Save, Grow Act] and now we need know what they can approve. We’ve done our job. “We did our work in the last month. We knew that it was coming, and that someone had to be responsible and sensible.”
The Senate didn’t need to do much to satisfy the Democratic leadership. The debt ceiling deal was passed with 63 votes to 36. Only Sen. Bill Hagerty from Tennessee did not vote. The deal was approved by 46 Democrats and 17 Republicans. Thirty-one of the 36 votes against came from Senate Republicans.
In total, 211 Democrats and 166 Republicans have voted in favor of the deal on the debt ceiling.
Some people would like you to believe that if there had been more funding available for Ukraine, Senate Republicans have voted overwhelmingly in favor.
It’s difficult to blame them given the antics of Sen. Lindsay Graham on the Senate Floor. Graham, who was just back from a trip in Ukraine, where he boasted of the number dead Russians, told his House colleagues: “I can’t believe that you did this.” “I need a promise from the leaders in this body to not pull the plug on Ukraine. The bill does not include any money to support future efforts by Ukraine to defeat Russia. Alligators in the United States were moved to tears.
Graham would Graham have people believe that Congress has a hard time transferring more taxpayer dollars to Ukraine? According to the way it looks, Congress has only managed to spend about $100 billion on Ukraine’s aid since the beginning of the war. The Pentagon continues to send aid packages to Kiev with price tags in the nine figures. The front is still moving west.
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Graham, like other hawks, such as Sens. Tom Cotton and James Risch. If you look closely, you will see Sen. Ron Johnson and Sen. John Kennedy. Tommy Tubberville of Alabama and Katie Britt from Alabama. Some are more pro-Ukraine than others but they’re doves when compared with Graham. Both Senators Josh Hawley and Marco Rubio, who regularly warn against China’s rise, but the former is more pro-Ukraine than the latter were no. There are also the usual suspects, such as Senators Rand Paul, Mike Lee and J.D. Vance.
It is to the Republicans’ shame if the claim that Republicans would have united around the deal had Ukraine received more funding were true. You can’t prove hypotheticals. It’s possible that not just Ukraine, but also national security concerns in general, played a part in the voting total.
Republicans voted against the debt ceiling because it did not do much to reduce government spending, both now and in future.
