Early Saturday morning, the Senate adopted its first concurrent budget resolution in four years. Democrats cleverly made sure to hand out enough hall passes to vulnerable red state senators so they could vote against the $1 trillion tax increase, while ensuring that it ultimately passed 50-49.
Senators Baucus, Begich, Hagan, and Pryor were given the green light to vote no. After a 13-hour “votarama” on 70 amendments, there is a lot to digest. Obviously, none of this will have the force of law as all of the amendments that passed are attached to this budget resolution, which is dead on arrival in the House. However, there are some important votes that can be used against Democrats in vulnerable seats, such as those pertaining to Obamacare, abortion, cap and trade, and guns.
On the Republican side, perhaps the most egregious vote was the Enzi amendment to allow states to form a cartel and collect internet sales taxes for other states. The so-called Market Fairness Act passed in the form of a second degree amendment by 75-24, with the support of 26 Republicans. This will send the message to Harry Reid that he has more than 60 votes to pass this as a standalone bill. In doing so, they have voted to grow government all over the country, hurt low-tax states, impose taxation without representation, saddle small businesses with collecting taxes for 10,000 distinct tax jurisdictions, and adulterate the freest most successful entity known to man. You can read more about it here.
Here are the 26 Republicans:
Alexander
Blunt
Boozman
Burr
Chambliss
Coburn
Cochran
Collins
Corker
Crapo
Enzi
Fischer
Graham
Hoeven
Isakson
Johanns
Johnson, R
Kirk
McCain
Moran
Portman
Risch
Sessions
Shelby
Thune
Wicker
One other important vote from a Republican vantage point was Ted Cruz’s amendment to reduce foreign aid to Egypt. It only garnered the support of 25 senators. I’ll check back with more updates after fully digesting all the votes.
Daniel Horowitz (Diary)
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