Where The Rubber Meets The Road (2/26/10)

As reported in last Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer, here is how Philadelphia-area members of Congress were recorded on major roll-call votes last week (and I also posted here).

National debt limit. Members voted, 217-212, to raise the U.S. debt limit by $1.9 trillion to $14.29 trillion. The measure was then joined to a "pay as you go" bill (below) and sent to President Obama.

A yes vote was to raise the federal debt limit.

Voting yes: Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.), Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.), Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.), Tim Holden (D., Pa.), Allyson Y. Schwartz (D., Pa.), and Joe Sestak (D., Pa.).

Voting no: John Adler (D., N.J.), Michael N. Castle (R., Del.), Charles W. Dent (R., Pa.), Jim Gerlach (R., Pa.), Frank A. LoBiondo (R., N.J.), Patrick Murphy (D., Pa.), Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.), and Christopher H. Smith (R., N.J.).

Well, at least the Dems authorized a vote on raising the debt limit, as opposed to the Repugs; as noted here from 2006…

Few lawmakers, though, wish to be on record as authorizing more debt -- the House goes so far as to hike the limit automatically. And Senate Democrats are telling their Republican counterparts not to expect any help from them, particularly in an election year.

If any amendments are attached to the Senate's debt measure, the House would be forced to vote on raising the limit -- the last thing many lawmakers seeking re-election want to be on the record as doing.

Treasury Secretary John Snow wrote congressional leaders last week, imploring them to immediately raise the $8.2 trillion debt limit. The House has put the new limit at $9 trillion.

So, Bushco as usual told the Repug congress to jump, and they asked “how high?”

And they have the nerve to criticize the Dems for transparency on this (and by the way, this is one of those votes that should come in handy for Patrick Murphy this fall when he probably will defend his seat against Mikey Fitzpatrick).

"Pay as you go." Members passed, 233-187, a rule under which tax cuts or entitlement spending hikes must be offset. If they are not offset, 60 Senate votes and a House majority would be needed to approve them.

A yes vote was to enact "pay as you go."

Voting yes: Adler, Andrews, Brady, Fattah, Holden, Murphy, Schwartz, and Sestak.

Voting no: Castle, Dent, Gerlach, LoBiondo, Pitts, and Smith.

And this party-line vote tells you how serious the House Repugs are about sound money management anyway.

Cybersecurity programs. Members authorized, 422-5, $396 million in National Science Foundation grants to boost cybersecurity research and instruction at universities.
A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Adler, Andrews, Brady, Castle, Dent, Fattah, Gerlach, Holden, LoBiondo, Murphy, Pitts, Schwartz, Sestak, and Smith.

And by the way, let it be known for the record that the five idiots who opposed beefing up our cyber security were Paul Broun, Jeff Flake, Louie Gohmert, Jim Sensenbrenner and Ron Paul (noted here, and I don’t have to point out their party affiliation, do I?).

Senate

Patricia Smith confirmation. Senators voted, 60-37, to confirm New York Labor Commissioner M. Patricia Smith as the Department of Labor solicitor. This followed the GOP's nine-month delay of her nomination.

A yes vote was to confirm Smith.

Voting yes: Thomas Carper (D., Del.), Bob Casey (D., Pa.), Ted Kaufman (D., Del.), Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.), Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), and Arlen Specter (D., Pa.).

Martha Johnson confirmation. Senators voted, 82-16, to end a GOP filibuster against the nomination of Martha N. Johnson to head the General Services Administration. She was then confirmed, 96-0, eight months after she was nominated.

A yes vote was to advance the nomination.

Voting yes: Carper, Casey, Kaufman, Lautenberg, Menendez and Specter.

This week, the House debated the 2010 intelligence budget and whether to end the health-insurance industry's antitrust exemption (they did). The Senate (all together now) took up a jobs bill (don't get me started - I was quite rightly mad at Bunning earlier for preventing the extension of unemployment benefits, but if it had been in this bill to begin with, Bunning wouldn't have been able to do anything, right?).

(It occurs to me that, given the basic non-functioning of this Congress due to Republican obstruction in the Senate, I should probably put a new pic in these posts, since the image of the tire implies smooth driving on a steady road. I'll give that some more thought -perhaps a multi-car pileup would be more appropriate.)

Update 2/27/10: By the way, even though Arlen Specter has committed to supporting a public option in health care reform (here we go again), Sideshow Bob Casey hasn't for some reason. To bug him to do the right thing and support it, click here.