Did 85 Democrats Vote In Favor of Government Shutdown?

by: warner todd huston | published: 09 25, 2011

Back on August first the whole country was waiting for the House of Representatives to raise the debt ceiling and offer a continuing resolution to prevent a feared government shutdown. That was done with the support of 95 Democrats who claimed they were desperate to prevent that shut down. (Relevant amendment)

However, in a follow up vote on Sept. 21 on another bill (H R 2608), 89 of those same Democrats reversed their vote and have essentially voted in favor of a government shut down by voting "no" on the latest continuing resolution to keep the government's doors open.

Of course, Democrats voted against this bill because increases in budgets (such as that for FEMA) were offset with cuts in other areas. Democrats simply want to increase spending without the fiscally responsible act of cutting spending elsewhere.

But why did Democrats vote in favor of the last deal and not in favor of this one? This new vote is intended to keep government in operation through Nov. 18, but Democrats voted this down. Last time they claimed to be desperate to avoid a shut down. But this time -- What has changed?

I'll tell you what has changed. This time the nation was not watching. This time the media had not made a big deal about this vote. This time the Democrats thought that the cover of the nation's inattention could hide the fact that they wanted to vote for spending hikes.

They think you are stupid, is really why they these 89 Democrats switched from a vote to avoid a shut down to one assuring one.

Of course, we can't just blame the Democrats here. A large number of Republicans (48 of them) also voted against this one because they wanted even more cuts.

So, what would this have done?

The bill would have funded the government at an annual rate of $1.043 trillion, in line with a bipartisan agreement reached in August. Many conservatives want to stick with the lower figure of $1.019 trillion that the House approved in April.

Still, regardless of what happened with this bill, the GOP's number two man, Eric Cantor, said there won't be any shut down so everyone "needs to relax."

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