It was very late, or very early, depending on your time zone, but the tax bill passed the U.S. Senate. The final tally was 51-49 with no last-minute surprises.
Unfortunately, it was a party-line vote. Every Democrat voted no – another example that diversity in that party is a word and not much else.
So can we finally stop talking about all those Democrats who will work with President Trump because he carried their state by double digits? Where in the world are those people?
What we saw in that vote was two things:
1. The Democrats stick together, no matter what they say back in West Virginia or Montana. A Democrat in the U.S. Senate is a vote for Senator Schumer.
Are you listening, Alabama? Judge Moore may have his many faults, but a Senator Jones from Alabama will be another Schumer disciple!
2. The red-state Democrats will have a lot of explaining to do, unless the GOP nominates a total loser and gives away Missouri, Indiana, et al.
As Kimberly Strassel pointed out, the Democrats missed an opportunity:
In short, there is very little to suggest Democrats benefit politically from sitting out this tax debate – beyond their saying so.And they’ve certainly done themselves no favors from a policy perspective.
She is right.
To start with, how does Senator Manchin of West Virginia continue to go on Fox News and say he wants to work with President Trump? He had a chance last night and passed it up.
How does Senator Tester of Montana spend his time talking about process? He was given plenty of time to introduce amendments. I saw Senator Sanders and Senator Brown put up a couple of amendments. Why didn’t he? Did Senator Tester bring up process when the Democrats were pushing Obamacare at the speed of sound back in 2009? I missed that “Tester process speech” back then!
Where was Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota? Is she planning to run for re-election on the grounds that she was loyal to Senator Schumer?
Time will tell, but several red-state Democrats made the wrong bet on the floor.
My guess is that this tax plan will be very well received by the stock market, and the U.S. economy will continue to grow. Hard to see how these Democrats helped their political fortunes!
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