Who voted No on the debt "deal"?
Many, but not all, progressives voted against this horrible legislation
The debt ceiling giveaway to Republicans, at the expense of Americans but to the satisfaction of the 165 Dems in the House, has passed as largely expected.
Two outcomes that were less expected but notable
More Dems voted for the debt deal (165) than Republicans (149), even though it was negotiated, and backed, by the House speaker Kevin McCarthy. Can you imagine more than half of the Democratic Party — when they had the House in 2021-2022 — voting against something Nancy Pelosi put forward?
Some progressives held the line and actually voted against the deal, even though President Biden personally negotiated it. And it wasn’t just progressives — 46 Democrats in all voted against it in the House. With the overall margin 314 to 117, there was plenty of room on both sides of the aisle to break ranks, but it was refreshing to see Democrats not marching lockstep on a bad bill.
One depressing bit of news is that, as TYT’s Managing Editor Jonathan Larsen points out in today’s Prog Report (subscribe to The Prog Report if you haven’t already!), the bill would not have passed without those Democratic votes. More Democrats voted for it than Republicans did.
Since there is literally nothing in the bill for Democrats, except arguably the fact that they won’t have to fight over the debt ceiling next year (which wouldn’t be good for candidate Biden), this means that most Democrats were okay with needlessly putting caps on social programs, decreasing funding to hold rich tax frauds accountable, and increasing defense spending.
I think it is encouraging news, though, that many Democrats *didn’t* vote for what the President and party leadership wanted them to. Certainly some of these are for selfish electoral reasons — Joe Manchin didn’t vote either way, and I doubt it was because he was upset about increased work requirements on SNAP. But there were progressives who held true to their argument that Joe Biden could, and should, have invoked the 14th Amendment, which clearly states that the US has to pay its debts. It doesn’t say the US must pay its debts only if one party doesn’t hold the country and world hostage by threatening a global economic collapse.
Here are some progressives that voted against Biden’s debt ceiling giveaway, based on the House’s official count (I got that link via the Prog Report).
Jamaal Bowman
Cori Bush
Ro Khanna
Pramila Jayapal
Summer Lee
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC)
Katie Porter
Ayanna Pressley
Rashida Tlaib
There were a few notable holdouts, though, among some notable lawmakers
Steve Cohen (my representative, who’s a strong progressive overall — he may be most known nationally as the first representative to introduce impeachment articles against Trump — but much too often goes with what establishment Dems want)
Henry Cuellar (who beat Jessica Cisneros thanks to corporate Dems’ help, so his vote is not surprising as he’s a centrist Democrat, but it reminds me how hard and important it is to beat establishment candidates in primaries)
Ilhan Omar (this is the most disappointing one to me — she’s normally among the most reliable progressive voices on the Squad)
Overall, while this bill is definitely a loss, progressives voting against it is a good sign for the movement. It’s a low bar — voting against a bill that is anti-progressive in essentially every way, on a bill that was almost certain to pass anyway. But the fact that progressives talked a very good game in the media *and* then followed up on it by denying Biden votes for this completely unnecessary “bipartisan” gift to Republicans, shows that they can work together and represent their constituents.
Now, progressives just need to keep this up going forward, even as the establishment presumably raises pressure on them to fall in line with the President’s not-so-hidden neoliberal agenda as the primaries approach.