House Passed the Bi-Partisan Bill to Raise the Debt Ceiling

House passes debt-ceiling bill, 269-161  -- note those numbers -- 269 members of Congress realized how important it was to pass this debt ceiling bill.  It was overwhelmingly bi-partisan with the greatest number of votes coming Republicans.  On the nay side was the Progressive Caucus and the Tea Party Caucus joining together to try and defeat this bill.  There were 174 Republicans who voted Yes and 66 No votes which is a lot more Yes votes than Sen Graham (R-SC) predicted when he said it would be 50-50 for Republicans -- not even close to that.  Almost 2/3rd of the Republican Caucus voted for the bill while the Democrats were the ones who were 95 Yes and 95 No as they split evenly.

Congressman Gabrielle Giffords who was shot earlier this year returned to the Capitol to cast a yes vote to a round of applause.

Watched the full debate on CSPAN.  Starting with Mike Pence's comments, the Republicans have a done a great job of saying this bill is a step forward and we cannot allow the Country to default. Two young Congressman stood out in the debate today -- Michael Grimm from Staten Island and James Langford from Oklahoma City These two articulate Freshman laid out why they supported this bill and left no doubt that this was a first step and it had to be passed.  Both were articulate and reasoned.  Great traits in a Congressman.

The Progressive Caucus voted against this bill and think some people on the Republican side should have asked themselves why they would be on the side of the Progressive Democrats who were livid at this bill.

For those who voted against this bill on behalf of the Defense Department, they have obviously have not worked for any agency of Defense or they would know there is a lot that could be trimmed out of Defense that would not affect our men and women and their ability to fight.

It is not the best bill, but frankly is is better than most Republicans thought could happen when Speaker Boehner said in the spring that in order to raise the debt ceiling you had to cut the deficit by that same number and not raise taxes.  He was right and deserves a tremendous amount of credit as do a lot of members of House Leadership who wouldn't be deterred in finding a solution in spite of some automatic 'no's' in the GOP Conference who actually got the head of the Republican Study Committee too attack leadership.

The Senate we predict will now pass this bill.   

Romney coming out today against this bill was bad timing and grandstanding just like Sarah Palin did last week.  Romney pandering was a joke.

Was going to post the votes, but the vote tally is still not up.  Will update this post when they are posted.