Six of the eight House Republicans running for Senate voted against the budget deal on Thursday that was brokered by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), while five of the eight Republican senators who are facing primary challenges have already said they will vote against it in the Senate.
The budget deal, which increases federal spending beyond the sequester levels, passed the House on Thursday by a 333-94 vote.
As The Hill noted, six of the eight House Republicans who are running for Senate voted against the bill. They included: Rep. Tom Cotton (R-AK), who is challenging Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AK); Rep. Steve Daines (R-MT); Reps. Paul Broun, Phil Gingrey, and Jack Kingston of Georgia; and Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX), who will primary Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX).
Two House Republicans–Reps. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV)–who are running for the Senate voted for the bill.
In the Senate, Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), John Cornyn (R-TX), Mike Enzi (R-WY), Pat Roberts (R-KS), Thad Cochran (R-MS), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), and Susan Collins (R-ME) face primary challenges.
Five of these senators—Enzi, Roberts, Cornyn, Graham, and McConnell–have said they would not vote for the budget. Alexander, Collins, and Cochran have not indicated how they will vote yet.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), the ranking member on the Budget Committee, said he intends to filibuster the Ryan-Murray budget, which means five Republicans would have to cross over for cloture to be invoked. Sessions, who said he was not consulted on the budget deal, said the agreement was “not a budget” because it was not crafted or even considered by conferees from the House and Senate.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whom former South Carolina Senator and current Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint said had the most influence in Republican primaries, wrote in an exclusive op-ed for Breitbart News on Thursday that “no one can argue with the fact that Paul Ryan’s compromise budget bill raises taxes and increases spending. Show me one Republican who got elected on that platform.”
“Spare America the Orwellian word games. If the government is taking money out of your pocket to fund its growing Big Brother operations, it’s a tax,” she said. “Whether money is taken from you via your phone bill, your airline ticket, or your income, it’s a tax. If politicians can’t be honest about this, it’s time to go home.”
Palin said “if any member of Congress thinks raising taxes and increasing wasteful spending is a winning strategy to run on, then by all means they should vote for the Ryan budget.”
“We’ll be watching,” she concluded.
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