Hoeven, Conrad Vote To Kill Budget Control Act Spending Caps

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Written By:
Rob Port

Apr 24, 2012
11:40pm

Yesterday I wrote about Democrats attempting to eliminate the Budget Control Act’s spending caps – what Republicans won in exchange for agreeing to raise the debt ceiling last year. A spending bill they proposed, bailing out the US Post Office, exceeded the spending limits created by the BCA.

Senator Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Budget Committee, raised a point of order to challenge the spending levels. The spending couldn’t proceed until the Senate cast 60 votes in favor of suspending the BCA’s rules and circumventing Sessions’ objection.

Today the Senate voted 62 – 37 to do just that, with Senator John Hoeven and seven other Republicans (the usual RINO suspects like Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, etc., etc.) joining the Democrat majority to exceed the spending limits.

By the way, the alleged “budget hawk” Kent Conrad who has insisted that the Budget Control Act is the same thing as a budget because it sets out these spending caps, also voted to circumvent the caps. What a hypocrite.

Now, don’t get me wrong, the Budget Control Act was a bad deal from the get-go. The vaunted “super committee” accomplished exactly nothing. But the one thing that made it tolerable at all was the spending caps that were supposed to restrain spending.

Except, as we’re finding out, they’re not restraining spending at all.