Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Two Interesting Developments In The U.S. Senate...
The first was brought to my attention by Atrios.
It seems that Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) introduced an amendment in the Senate stating the following purpose:
To express the sense of the Senate that Congress should reject any Social Security plan that requires deep benefit cuts or a massive increase in debt.
This amendment is essentially an opportunity to separate the Republicans that are pro-phaseout and those who are not, since Bush's plan to privatize part of Social Security would require both deep benefit cuts and a massive increase in debt.
5 Republicans (Collins, DeWine, Graham, Snowe, Specter) crossed the aisle to vote with the Democrats, but the amendment was rejected in a 50-50 vote with Vice President Sunshine casting the tiebreaking vote...
As Atrios points out, the following GOP Senators that voted against preventing benefit cuts incurring massive debt are up for re-election next year:
Allen, George VA
Burns, Conrad MT
Chafee, Lincoln RI
Ensign, John NV
Hatch, Orrin UT
Hutchison, Kay Bailey TX
Kyl, Jon AZ
Lott, Trent MS
Lugar, Richard IN
Santorum, Rick PA
Talent, Jim MO
Thomas, Craig WY
The second vote that caught my eye was an amendment brought to the floor by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI). The stated purpose of this amendment was as follows:
To protect the American people from terrorist attacks by providing the necessary resources to our firefighters, police, EMS workers and other first-responders by restoring $1,626 billion in cuts to first-responder programs.
Given all the talk about the GOP supposedly being better equipped to protect the American people, you would think they would have been falling all over themselves to vote for this amendment.
You'd be wrong.
The amendment failed by a 54-46 margin with only Sen. Lincoln Chafee crossing the aisle to support fully funding first responders.
Business as usual in the GOP congress.
It's no wonder they're languishing with a 37% approval rating...
UPDATE: DailyKos comes to a conclusion I hadn't thought of. With 5 Republicans opposed to deep cuts in Social Security benefits and new debt to finance private accounts, Bush's plan is officially DEAD...
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