In the wake of the news that Harry Reid is going to force the Senate Republicans to vote on Paul Ryan's horrid budget proposal that already passed in the House, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough looked to me like he was giving former Club for Growth President and current Senator from Pennsylvania Pat Toomey a chance to do some early damage control if Reid does force the Senate Republicans to take a vote on Ryan and the House Republican's budget bill.
I hate to break it to Toomey and Scarborough, but all of the talk in the world about how "serious" and "adult" and supposedly necessary Ryan's budget cuts are, it's not going to make his draconian proposals go over any better with the voters once they get a look at his plan.
And of course Toomey and Scarborough's ridiculous interview doesn't get to the substance of what is being cut. Just saying it's unreasonable that we can't take spending back to the levels the government had in previous years is completely ridiculous. The devil is in the details with who they're taking care of and who they're cutting services to and not just broad, sweeping, meaningless talking points like we saw out of the two of them here. And also par for the course, there was no mention of the Ryan budget cutting taxes for corporations on the backs of the poor, the working class and our seniors.
What matters are our priorities and Toomey's priorities are taking care of his rich campaign donors. We'll see how well that goes over with voters once Harry Reid forces that vote on the Senate floor. I'm sure Toomey knows full well that he and his fellow Republican Senators might be in for some town hall meetings like we've seen their counterparts in the House putting up with if they vote for Ryan's budget. Here's more from TPM on that.
Reid To Senate Republicans: You Wanna Privatize Medicare? Vote For It!:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) confirmed on a conference call with reporters Wednesday that he'll force Senate Republicans to vote on the controversial House GOP budget.
"We're going to have an opportunity in the Senate to vote for the [Paul] Ryan budget," Reid told reporters, to "see if Republicans in the Senate like the Ryan budget as much as their colleagues [in the House] did."
That budget, which passed in the lower chamber with near-unanimous GOP support, includes a policy agenda that would phase out Medicare, dramatically slash Medicaid, while reducing the tax burden on the wealthiest Americans. It has become the source of significant heartburn for vulnerable House Republicans, who have had to face down angry constituents in their districts during the current two-week recess.
Reid's strategy leaves Senate Republicans two unenviable options: link arms and vote unanimously (or nearly unanimously) for the politically controversial House budget, or take political cover and expose divisions within the party over the direction GOP leaders want to take the country.
