Ryan Budget Passes House Despite United Democratic Opposition

Paul Ryan’s budget plan that calls for savage budget cuts and for lowering tax rates for the wealthy, passed the House on a 219 to 205 vote today. The vote was largely symbolic as the resolution is merely a blueprint for GOP budget aspirations, rather than a bill that has any chance to be voted into law. Nevertheless, the symbolic vote illustrates the sharp partisan divide in the House. Democrats voted unanimously against the proposal 193-0. Republicans were less unified as a dozen GOP lawmakers defected and voted down the Ryan proposal.

A mixture of extreme conservatives and moderates jumped from Republican ranks to oppose the plan. The twelve dissenting GOP Representatives brought the measure embarrassingly close to defeat for Paul Ryan, especially since not a single Democrat was willing to support the plan. Republicans who voted no were Reps. Paul Broun, Phil Gingrey, Jack Kingston and Austin Scott of Georgia; Tom Massie of Kentucky; Rick Crawford of Arkansas; Chris Gibson of New York; Frank Lobiondo of New Jersey; Ralph Hall of Texas; Dave Jolly of Florida; Walter Jones of North Carolina; and David McKinley of West Virginia.

Three of the Georgia Representatives- Kingston, Gingrey, and Broun, voted no because the Ryan plan is not conservative enough. The three are in a hotly contested Senate primary where they are crawling over one another to prove which candidate is furthest to the right. In the alternate universe that is the GOP Senate primary in Georgia, no candidate wants to be saddled with the burden of having sided with Paul Ryan, for fear that Ryan is perceived as too liberal.

On the Democratic side of the aisle, opposition to the Ryan plan was universal with every single Democrat voting no. The Democratic caucus stayed loyal to the House Democratic leadership and to the American people by rejecting the Ryan plan by a 193-0 margin. Although it remains fashionable for cynics to argue that there are no substantive differences between the two major political parties in Congress, the unified Democratic opposition to the Ryan plan once again illustrates the folly of that tired and false argument.

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Keith Brekhus

Keith Brekhus is a progressive American who currently resides in Red Lodge, Montana. He is co-host for the Liberal Fix radio show. He holds a Master's Degree in Sociology from the University of Missouri. In 2002, he ran for Congress as a Green Party candidate in the state of Missouri. In 2014, he worked as a field organizer for Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick's successful re-election bid in Arizona's 1st Congressional District. He can be followed on Twitter @keithbrekhus or on Facebook.

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