It didn’t make big headlines in this morning’s newspapers, and its Democratic co-author is already backing away from its provisions affecting military pensions, but in any event, the Murray-Ryan budget deal made it through the Senate last night on a 64-36 vote.
It was all predetermined by an earlier cloture vote, but it is interesting to note that not one of the seven Republicans facing primary challenges next year were among the nine Republicans who voted for this measure–not the supposed leader of Senate Republicans, Mitch McDonnell; not the ever-eager deal-maker, Lindsey Graham (it’s he, in fact who’s stirred up the military pension backlash, giving a substantive dimension to a position almost certainly dictated by South Carolina Republican politics; not Mr. Reasonable, Lamar Alexander. Remember that next time you’re told this budget deal represented the final submission of the Tea Party by the “pragmatic” Republican Establishment, which fears the radical no more.
