Senate Stimulus Amendment Voting Thread

by: Chris Bowers

Tue Feb 03, 2009 at 15:28


The Senate is currently debating, and voting, on the various amendments to the stimulus package. You can watch the proceedings over at c-span.org.

The first amendment, proposed by Senators Patty Murray and Diane Feinstein, was defeated 58-39. That sucks, because it would have added $18 billion in transportation funding to the stimulus.

The amendment would have passed with two more votes. Ted Kennedy did not vote for health reasons, and Judd Gregg did not vote because, well, I don't know. It is worth noting that this amendment, by itself, more than twice as large as the budget of the entire Commerce department. So yeah, I'm glad that he is being so useful already.

Al Franken would also have been a useful vote, but obviously he hasn't been seated yet. Mary Landrieu, the least reliable Democratic vote on cloture motions, voted with Republicans. I think we should nominate her for President.

Any combination of two votes from the four listed above would have resulted in another $18 billion for transportation funding. But, it didn't happen.

This is an open thread for Senate voting, and debate, on stimulus amendments.  
Chris Bowers :: Senate Stimulus Amendment Voting Thread

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Senate Stimulus Amendment Voting Thread | 27 comments
Enjoy your committee on small business chairmanship Mary Landreau (4.00 / 2)
You ain't going nowhere for a long time.
It's not like Lieberman has been punished for turning on the party (4.00 / 5)
I don't see why Landrieu is going to suffer any consequences from this, either.
[ Parent ]
You're probably right at this point (4.00 / 4)
I'm so freaking frustrated with out party and with the lack of leadership and messaging and communications from the White House on down.  
[ Parent ]
As Chris suggested... (4.00 / 3)

 ...she'll probably get promoted for this.  

"We judge ourselves by our ideals; others by their actions. It is a great convenience." -- Howard Zinn
[ Parent ]
I'm convinced that Mary Landrieu makes Palin.. (0.00 / 0)
...look like a Mensa candidate...

She said it was the timing of the amendment that she disagreed with, so she voted against it...  And I think she actually believes that BS...

What a crock!!

REID: Voting against us was never part of our arrangement!
SPECTER: I am altering the deal! Pray I don't alter it any further!
REID: This deal keeps getting worse all the time!

[ Parent ]
Don't blame her... (0.00 / 0)
Until Senate leadership strong arms the caucus, they will vote how they want... Maybe if we got a Senate leader who rules the caucus the way it should be run... an iron fist dictatorship... then we'd get some of this.
[ Parent ]
an iron fist dictatorship? (0.00 / 0)
really? You've never met a Senator have you? An iron fist dictatorship is the easiest way to get Senators to leave the party or go Indy. Senators are a lot more independent than House members. They don't like to be told what to do.

I think we're forgetting that our caucuses actually held together better than the Republicans...two of them voted with us.

[ Parent ]
Reid needs to put the hammer down (4.00 / 1)
Yeah, I know, we're talking about Harry Reid here. But WTF?

Isn't there something called "whipping" votes, getting all of your members to get in line. If Max Baucus and Kent Conrad could vote for this Landrieu sure could have. She doesn't run again until 2014 for god's sake.

And Obama could have called Snowe and Gregg and Collins and his other GOP friends, got their support for this. But I guess bipartisanship only goes one way in DC, huh?

Finally, Kennedy needs to figure out if he's healthy enough to be there for these votes. Once in a blue moon isn't gonna cut it, and I hope his absence doesn't become a regular issue on these cloture votes.

I'm starting to think... (0.00 / 0)
That Kennedy should resign and let Gov. Patrick appoint a new Democrat to the seat.
[ Parent ]
The way things have gone (0.00 / 0)
he'd probably nominate Mitt Romney.
[ Parent ]
Mitt's too moderate for Obama (0.00 / 0)

 .  

"We judge ourselves by our ideals; others by their actions. It is a great convenience." -- Howard Zinn
[ Parent ]
Wrong (4.00 / 1)
he can't appoint anyone. Mass law says a special election must be held, was passed when Kerry was running in 04 and Mit was guv.  

John McCain: Beacuse lobbyists should have more power
[ Parent ]
Open senate seat in Mass. = (4.00 / 2)
a special election
[ Parent ]
Filibuster (4.00 / 2)
We should have let the Republicans go with the "nuclear option" to remove the filibuster back when we had the chance.  I think I'll be regretting that a lot over the next few years.
Maybe... (0.00 / 0)
But think of just how much more they could have fucked up the country...

besides, I believe that option was for judicial filibusters.

[ Parent ]
58-39 (4.00 / 3)
Just out of curiosity, does anyone have a quick calculation of how many people are represented by the 58 and how many are represented by the 39?  My guess is a very small percentage of the population blocked this over a very large majority.
If I had to guess (4.00 / 1)
It would be 75% - 25%, but I pulled that number out of my nether regions.

It's incredibly undemocratic that two Senators from Wyoming (pop. 500,000) can cancel out the senators from California (pop. 33,000,000).

[ Parent ]
actually (4.00 / 1)
I ran the actual numbers using each state's percentage of the population, dividing the number in two when a state's senators split on the vote.

For infrastructure: 64%
Against: 36%

It's a damn good thing we have Democratic senators in such small states as Alaska, the Dakotas, Montana, Vermont, Rhode Island. Otherwise we'd have tyranny of the tiny states.

[ Parent ]
Rough numbers (0.00 / 0)
Working on an estimate of 700000 people for each congressional seat, those voting against represented 207.2 million people, whilst those voting for represented 393.4 million people.

Obviously there's problem in that everybody has two senators, but that starts to show you how much of a minority this was.

Then factor in that the 39 in opposition represent only 24 states. That means that there are 15 states where both senators opposed it, versus 9 where the two Senators were split.

Those 15 are Tennessee, Wyoming, Utah, Kansas, Kentucky, Georgia, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Maine, Texas, Idaho, South Carolina, Arizona, Louisiana and Alabama. In other words, a coalition of rural, primarily Southern and generally conservative small states, representing between them only around a quarter of the country.

The nine who stood without the other senator from their state in opposition come from North Carolina, Nevada, Iowa, Nebraska, Indiana, Florida, Alaska, South Dakota and Ohio. They represent a mixture of the stupidly conservative, the incredibly entrenched, the leadership functionaries and those who are retiring.

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[ Parent ]
WHat really bothers me is (4.00 / 3)
...when it came to voting for the 750 billion dollar giveaway to the rich everyone voted for it...but vote for a real bill that will actually help, no way.

I'm sorry but I have no faith in our party, our government or my country. Rush Limbaugh has won.

Same old Democrats (0.00 / 0)

 I just can't imagine why the Democrats are perceived as "weak". I just don't get it at all. It makes no sense.  

"We judge ourselves by our ideals; others by their actions. It is a great convenience." -- Howard Zinn
Landrieu votes with Big Oil all along (0.00 / 0)
Yet she whines when the levees in her state are not repaired. I once complained to Sen Durbin about her proclivity to vote against Dems, but got no reply from him. Have never donated to her campaigns, and never will.
conf cmte (0.00 / 0)
in conference can we get more infastrucutre funds in that way?
hope so (0.00 / 0)
That's where we should make this bill more to our liking, then see if the Senate GOP really wants to filibuster it. After this week's jobs report, a filibuster is gonna be that much harder.
[ Parent ]
When are you going to correct your statement about the bad bank (0.00 / 0)
you're math was off by 3.75 Trillion dollars according to Chuck Schumer. you can delete my quick hits all you like but it won't help educate people.

~* the * Will * to go on *~
This may sound callous but... (4.00 / 1)
I recommend threatening Landrieu with punitive distribution of stimulus funding.  If she doesn't want to vote for infrastructure, then can we just not send any infrastructure money to Louisiana? And I am including New Orleans as part of what should be placed under interdict.

Sure, it screws Louisianans in the short term, but Democrats have a problem in that they are perceived as being unable to make those sorts of threats stick in order to whip potential party traitors into shape.  At some point, a Senate Democrat needs to be metaphorically crucified and made an example of.

Of course, it would never happen.  But I'd love to see a Democratic leader who would be willing to practice such cold-blooded power politics.

Things You Don't Talk About in Polite Company: Religion, Politics, the Occasional Intersection of Both

LBJ vs. Reid (4.00 / 1)
LBJ would have done it in a heart beat and used the funding to buy a Republican vote or two to compensate for the lost vote.

Currently six of seven House members from LA are Republicans so this is pretty much a free shot.

[ Parent ]
Senate Stimulus Amendment Voting Thread | 27 comments
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