Today's Spending Bill

All the talk today is about the Republican split on spending and how unhappy everyone is with the most recent CRA. (That's continuing resolution authority, for us non-Beltway types, where the government is funded incrementally for a few weeks or even days.) 50 Republicans voted no, on the idea that another $10 billion in cuts to get the bill passed was insufficient. Make no mistake, this is a huge victory for Speaker Boehner. He passes another spending bill with cuts, he is making the Dems play defense, but he is getting enough of their votes so that Obama is in no position to veto. Further, the only debate is how much further do we want to cut? Controlling the debate is important, because it continues to put the left in the bad light of being in favor of earmarks (whose elimination was used to reduce some of the spending) and general cluelessness.

Further, since the measure is only temporary, there is another chance to get more cuts. Even though politicians from both sides are complaining about having to incessantly debate short term spending measures, this is what democracy is about. As Dean frequently opines, Democracy is like, hard.

You know you're doing something right when you annoy Chuckie Schumer and he tweets:

"It's time for @SpeakerBoehner to abandon the Tea Party and work to reach bipartisan consensus on the budget," Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. tweeted Wednesday.