Whether you agree it’s one of the odder things to become law, there’s no question that a suspension of the nation’s $16.4 billion debt ceiling will soon have the president’s blessing. The House voted on Jan. 23 to kick the can down the road, and the Senate voted 64-34 today to do the same.
https://twitter.com/BrettLoGiurato/status/297103413433495553
It doesn’t offset spending, but one thing the bill will do is hold lawmakers’ salaries in an escrow account if the House or the Senate does not manage to pass a budget by April 15.
"Cornyn Votes Against Debt Ceiling Bill." Becoming pretty easy to read where he's going these days…
— Rick Klein (@rickklein) January 31, 2013
.@JohnCornyn ties the #debtlimit bill to “President Obama’s failed tax-and-spend agenda"
— Niels Lesniewski (@nielslesniewski) January 31, 2013
So Senator McConnell votes against the debt limit plan that came from House Republicans. Wanted amendments adopted …
— Niels Lesniewski (@nielslesniewski) January 31, 2013
McConnell wanted spending cut amendments adopted as part of the #debtlimit plan.
— Niels Lesniewski (@nielslesniewski) January 31, 2013
One amendment to the debt ceiling bill that didn’t make the cut was Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s amendment prohibiting the sale of F-16s, tanks and other military hardware. (For more on that, see Twitchy’s coverage of a protester in Egypt holding a sign reading, “Obama you jerk, Muslim Brotherhoods are killing the Egyptians.“)
The Senate just rejected my Amendment to prohibit the U.S. from selling F-16's and M1 tanks to the Egyptian Government. http://t.co/WHzeIuCA
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) January 31, 2013
ICYMI: Appeared on @FoxNews w/ @ericbolling discussing my amendment to stop sending F-16's and tanks to #Egypt. #tcot http://t.co/El3eh4BY
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) January 31, 2013
In a speech on the Senate floor, Paul said, in part:
I think it is a grave mistake to send F-16s and tanks to a country that detained American citizens on trumped up political charges. On a country that currently is still detaining Egyptian citizens on trumped-up political charges.
I think it is a blunder of the first proportion to send sophisticated weapons to a country that allowed a mob to attack our embassy and to burn our flag. I find it objectionable to send weapons, F-16s and tanks, to a company that allowed a mob chanting “death to America” to threaten our American diplomats.
Just how far down the road can this can be kicked?
Oh, yup, debt ceiling can is kicked down to August after the accounting tricks.
— Jonathan Hart Ellis (@JHartEllis) January 31, 2013
#Senate agrees to suspend US debt ceiling to May 19, removing immediate #fiscalcliff worries. Political can kicked down road. Again.
— Royston Wild (@FreelanceRoy) January 31, 2013
https://twitter.com/tmims50/status/297102778948521985
Senate suspends the debt ceiling! Lidsamy suspends all belief in Washington
— ????? ???? ??? (@HonkyTonkJew) January 31, 2013
https://twitter.com/ezraklein/status/297102651420725248
.@JohnCornyn: "If we continue to kick the can down the road, pretty soon we're going to run out of road." #SpendingIsTheProblem #tcot
— Senate Republicans (@SenateGOP) January 31, 2013
Clearly we need to build more road MT @JohnCornyn: "If we continue to kick the can down the road … we're going to run out of road." #tcot
— Fired (@WasteTimeAndGet) January 31, 2013
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