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Earlier today, Democrats badly lost a "test vote" on the economic relief bill (variously called the "jobs bill," the "tax extenders bill," or the "unemployment extension bill,") that is still, painfully, slowly, winding its way through Congress. On the motion to "waive budgetary discipline," which would have allowed the bill to pass with only 51 votes instead of 60, the vote was 52 against, and 45 in favor.
Forty Republicans and twelve Democrats voted against the rule, with no Republicans voting in favor. The Democratic "no' votes were Bayh, Begich, Feingold, Kohl, Landrieu, Lieberman, McCaskill, Menendez, Ben Nelson, Bill Nelson, Pryor and Webb. Generally ConservaDems, but a bit of a mix.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had already withdrawn his cloture motion on the overall bill last night, so the Democratic leadership already knew it did not have the votes to pass the bill in its current, $140 billion form. That form is $27 billion larger than the version that passed the House on May 28th, primarily because of $24 billion in aid to states to pay for Medicaid.
The bill will now be shrunk in size to help achieve votes for passage. While the exact nature of the cuts are unknown, most of the speculation is on the $24 billion in aid to states for Medicaid (over which House Appropriations Chair David Obey is currently stalling war funding), and on the tens of billions for a 19-month extension of Medicare payments to doctors, without which doctors will start receiving a 21% cut in Medicare payments. Concerning the latter, the focus is on shortening the time period on the "doc fix" extension to something less than 19 months.
The continuing inability to pass the two spending bills before Congress (the economic relief bill and the Afghanistan funding bill), speaks to deep divisions within the Democratic Party. A minority on the left are opposed to continued funding of the war in Afghanistan, making it almost impossible to add any additional domestic stimulus spending to that bill (which all Republicans oppose). A minority on the right-wing of the party are joining with Republicans to demand steep cuts in public education and health care programs in return for their votes. The end result is continuing, stunning delays in these two spending bills, with an outcome that remains entirely unclear.
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