TPM Editor’s Blog

House Dems Almost Pull Fast One On GOP

Chaos erupted just now on the floor of the House of Representatives as the minority Democrats almost succeeded in buffaloing the majority Republicans into voting for a long-term budget plan that is even more to the right than Rep. Paul Ryan’s “official” GOP budget and would have supplanted it.

When the vote on the Republican Study Committee’s uber-conservative budget came to a floor vote a short time ago, Dems voted present and the result was that the RSC’s budget was about to pass with a simple majority of only Republicans. That would have put GOPers on the record for some really fringe budget ideas that would have made for great campaign ads against them, but it would also have supplanted the Ryan budget as the official budget template for the GOP.

As the chaos ensued, Republicans were able to scramble and reverse their yes votes to no votes, and the far-right budget ultimately failed, but just barely. Brian Beutler reports.

David Kurtz

David Kurtz is Managing Editor and Washington Bureau Chief of Talking Points Memo where he oversees the news operations of TPM and its sister sites.

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