Mitch McConnell a.k.a. “the turtle” a title promulgated if not coined by Rush Limbaugh pulled together a pathetic posse of eleven Republicans to allow Democrats maneuvering room to pursue the gargantuan budget reconciliation bill comprised of elements that, whatever the initial financial size, will inculcate Marxist precepts and be difficult to remove.
McConnel had been signaling that anything the Democrats did would have to be on their own, that Republicans would not be part of it. That threat lasted a few weeks.
According to MSN:
Senate Democrats passed the $480 billion increase by a simple majority vote of 50-48. The vote on the final measure occurred after 11 GOP lawmakers joined Democrats in a vote to invoke cloture, clearing the 60-vote filibuster threshold.
The 11 Republicans who voted to allow the measure to proceed were Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Minority Whip John Thune, John Cornyn, Lisa Murkowski, Shelley Moore Capito, Richard Shelby, Rob Portman, Susan Collins, John Barrasso, Mike Rounds and Roy Blunt.
This analysis at the Federalist by Christopher Jacobs who is well versed in difficult to follow Senate procedural maneuvers lays out what McConnell helped shepherd.
Republicans caving on the debt ceiling paved the way for Democrats to focus the rest of the fall on their tax-and-spending spree
It is suggested that McConnell feared the Democrats would go nuclear and end the filibuster but for this allowance. We wonder why they would have to when McConnell and company can be expected to give them what they want under threat of doing so while actually retaining the filibuster for themselves.
We note that Senator Grassley was not part of this particular posse. Perhaps some commentary on that in a coming post.
