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The Democrats who voted against the stimulus bill in the House, part II: Once more round the bend

Feb 13, 2009
Economy, Politics, US Economy, US Politics

So the vote is in; the US Representatives in the House have voted on the new, unified, post-conference version of the stimulus bill.

The outcome is predictably, depressingly similar to when the House voted on its own draft of the bill two weeks ago. No minds were changed here, no hearts were won. Well, one or two.

70 13-Feb H R 1 On Agreeing to the Conference Report Making supplemental appropriations for fiscal year ending 2009

The vote: 246 in favour; 183 against. Compare: the previous time it was 244 in favour and 188 against.

Just like last time, not a single Republican voted in favour. On their side, the only differences were that:

  • Last time, Ginny Brown-Waite (VA-5) did not vote; now she voted Nay;
  • Last time, John Campbell (CA-48) and Chris Lee (NY-26) voted against; now they did not vote.

That’s it.

On the Democratic side of the aisle, 246 Representatives voted in favour; 7 against; 1 “present”; and 1 did not vote. Last time round, 244 voted in favour and 11 against.

These are the Democrats who voted against the stimulus both times:

  • Bobby Bright – AL 02
  • Parker Griffith – AL 05
  • Walt Minnick – ID 01
  • Collin Peterson – MN 07
  • Heath Shuler – NC 11
  • Gene Taylor – MS 04
There were actually three vote-changers who went from supporting the bill to opposing it or abstaining (!):
  • Peter DeFazio (OR-4)- changed from Yea to Nay
  • Dan Lipinski (IL-3) – changed from Yea to Present
  • Jim Clyburn (SC-6) – changed from Yea to Not voting (not sure why – he’s the House Majority Whip. Maybe just couldn’t make it for some reason or other?)
And there were all of five who were persuaded by the changes to the bill and now voted in favour:
  • Allen Boyd – FL 02
  • Jim Cooper – TN 05
  • Brad Ellsworth – IN 08
  • Paul Kanjorski – PA 11
  • Frank Kratovil – MD 01
I’m inclined to say, what a waste. All of these compromises in the name of bipartisan change, and all for nought, as the Republican Party remains unified on its course of sabotage. OK, I realise that the compromises were primarily needed for passage in the Senate. Let’s see how many Republicans sign up there. I doubt it will be more than three or four. And considering that their sense of centrism is to take whatever is offered and just slice a vanity (but costly) 10% off it, you could have had a much better bill by going in more aggressively. Instead of giving away the compromises right at the start by building them straight into the first draft. It was a costly lesson Obama learned.

Related posts:

  1. The Democrats who voted against the stimulus bill in the House UPDATE, 13 February: For an overview on today’s vote, see...
  2. The Republicans who voted for the stimulus bill in the Senate (all three of them) UPDATE, 14 February: Yesterday, the Senate voted anew on the...
  3. Stimulus bill comes out of conference. While it’s distasteful to see the centrists crow, the bill doesn’t look bad. The Conference Committee of Senate and House honchos has reached...

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3 Comments

  1. Corvus9  •  Feb 13, 2009 @11:21 pm

    I am kind of surprised that Joseph Cao still didn’t vote for it. The guy in in the middle of deep-blue territory, which he only won because his opponent was crooked as a tree branch. Mayhaps he has realized his only chance of a future career is within the GOP patronage machine? If so, kind of sad, because he sounded really idealistic in his post-win interviews.

  2. nimh  •  Feb 14, 2009 @8:03 am

    Good point, yeah. That’s kind of depressing – if even he didn’t vote for it… the peer pressure within the Republican caucus must have been enormous, is my guess – threats of freezing people who voted in favour out of positions etc..

  3. Dave Williams  •  Mar 6, 2009 @8:42 am

    Why is it that when Democrats are ramming a huge pork bill down our throats under the guise of a “stimulus” bill it’s all lovely. But when Republicans vote their convictions it’s labeled sabotage? Has it ever occurred to you that just because someone doesn’t agree with you it is NOT sabotage? But then liberalism is nothing more than the state of victim-ism…. either being a victim or victimizing someone else. I watch the news and am dumbfounded by Democrats STILL blaming Bush for the economy and for the past 8 years of unbridled spending. Make no mistake, I do hold Bush responsible for this mess…however, the last two years of his term ( 25% of his 8 year term) the democrats were in control of congress but did absolutely nothing to stop his spending rampage! oh wait.. that’s right.. they were playing the victims!!!! The truth is that in only 2 months Obama has spent more than the total of what the government has spend since the inception of this country. Do people not know that if one spends money they don’t have there is an awful payday coming? Our children, grand children and great grandchildren will suffer because of the financial enslavement that this government is creating right now. You want to talk about sabotage? There’s some REAL sabotage to talk about. It’s time for some common sense to come back into governing this country. Democrat, Republican, the party of mighty mouse- I don’t care.. whomever is at the controls needs to once again consider what is best for this country and her CITIZENS…. NOT just playing the same old political games that have gotten us in this situation.

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