BIPARTISAN OPPOSITION…. When the Republican budget plan reached the House floor last week, four GOP members — along with every Democrat in the chamber — decided not to go along. They had very different motivations, but these four Republicans made opposition to the Paul Ryan proposal bipartisan.
We haven’t heard too much from Senate Republicans, who voted in lock step last month in support of the House Republicans’ budget plan for this fiscal year, on the Ryan plan, but yesterday, one of the GOP’s “moderates” noted her opposition publicly.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine.) said Friday that she will not support the 2012 budget passed by the House last week.
“I don’t happen to support Congressman Ryan’s plan but at least he had the courage to put forward a plan to significantly reduce the debt,” Collins said on “In the Arena” a program on WCSH 6, a local NBC affiliate in Portland, Maine.
Collins is the first Republican senator to state publicly that she will not support the Ryan budget.
It’s worth noting, just for the record, that this “courage” line continues to be quite foolish. There’s nothing courageous about House Republicans embracing a cruel and fraudulent budget plan.
For that matter, Collins should also realize that the Ryan plan, because it cuts taxes so much, doesn’t do much to “significantly reduce the debt” for many years. For actual debt reduction plans, the Maine senator should probably consider some of the progressive alternatives.
But putting all of that aside, the good news is that opposition to the House GOP plan in the Senate is now bipartisan, too. And with Collins willing to say so publicly, it seems rather likely that others, including Olympia Snowe, will join her, putting pressure on blue-state Republicans like Scott Brown and Mark Kirk to follow suit.
