Pay-Go

It gets tougher to blog when everything you seem to blog about is another defeat in the Senate. First, the drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge remains in the Senate budget, skirting actual debate on the issue and preventing it from being filibustered. The only hope now is that when the House and the Senate get together to even out differences in their two bills, they drop the provision altogether.

Now I'm watching the vote on Pay-as-you-go limits on the budget, and it seems doomed to failure as well. Sadly, the main argument that Republicans have been trying to sell is parodied here in the AP article:

Top Senate Republicans expect to defeat a drive by Democrats and GOP moderates to make it harder for Congress to approve new tax cuts, Senate aides said Thursday.

That, of course, is not entirely true. The fangled amendment would simply require any tax cuts to be offset by equivalent spending cuts or require sixty votes for approval. It's an attempt by Democrats to being some fiscal sanity to the borrow and spend Republican Congress.

But, if you buy the Republican defense rhetoric, then you would also have to cede that this bill makes it harder to increase spending, because it could not be approved without a new tax proposal or spending cuts as well.

Imagine your household budget. Say you want to spend money on an add on to your house. You aren't going to simply go out and spend the money, but rather take the time to look over your budget and accommodate the spending. That's what the Feingold amendment looks to do. And that is what a majority of Republicans oppose.

Democrats truly have become the party of fiscal responsibility.