Dem
51
GOP
49
Both chambers of Congress have passed a bill that will fund the government for another week, while negotiations on a longer-term package continue. It doesn't have Joe Biden's signature yet, but that will undoubtedly be applied today.
The vote in each chamber is instructive. In the House, the measure passed 224-201. Put another way, the Democrats were joined by nine Republicans—Adam Kinzinger (IL), Liz Cheney (WY), Chris Jacobs (NY), Anthony Gonzalez (OH), John Katko (NY), Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA.), Fred Upton (MI), Steve Womack (AR) and Brian Fitzpatrick (PA). In news that is highly related, seven of those nine will be leaving the House at the end of this term. Only Womack and Fitzpatrick will remain as of Jan. 3 of next year.
Meanwhile, over the Senate, the vote was considerably more lopsided. The 50 Democrats and independents were joined by 21 Republicans, for a final vote of 71-19. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was one of the 71, and he clearly whipped his conference in support of the bill.
What this pretty strongly suggests is that a full-year spending deal is going to be adopted next week. As long as the Democrats can attract 10 (or 21) Republican votes in the Senate, then they don't need any Republican votes in the House at all. Reportedly, as per usual, most of the haggling is on non-defense spending. However, leaders on both sides of the Senate expressed optimism that they'll work something out.
Meanwhile, the willingness of McConnell & Co. to support a long-term bill (well, one that will be in effect for most of next year), as opposed to pushing this to January, could be a preview of the dynamics of the 118th Congress. It sure looks like Senate Republicans are scared to death about what might happen if a Republican-controlled House (and, by extension, the MAGA crew) gets power over the federal budget. They know that if the government gets shut down or, even worse, if the government defaults on its debt, voters are likely to blame the GOP.
And so, maybe that will be the dynamic in 2023-25: Democrats, a small number of moderate House Republicans, and Senate Republicans finding middle ground so as to stop the MAGA Militia from wrecking the country. If that does happen, it would mean that the Joes, Biden and Manchin, were right and bipartisanship isn't dead. It just took Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Matt Gaetz (R-FL) to scare everyone straight. (Z)