The Senate signed a Republican budget plan early on Friday, with mostly passing by party-affiliated votes.
The final tally was 52-48, with all Democrats and one Republican, Rand Paul of Kentucky opposed the resolution.
The senators spent most of the night in worn-out congressional rituals. It's a long marathon with voting time on proposals that don't become (and never intended) laws known as “Voting Llamas.” In a room with an average age of 65, the almost empty one helps the lord bring the senator to the floor and frame the feud between Republicans and Democrats with the country's priorities He delivered procedural movements delivered to the room and a floor speech. You need to spend federal money.
It was clear that Washington had been a long night as the senator slowly entered the chamber late Thursday afternoon. The aide carried a thick briefing folder with one hand and a caffeinated drink in the other hand.
Republicans were there to argue for a budget resolution. This must be adopted to push President Trump's ambitious agenda. Democrats are ready to file public lawsuits against Trump's plans and have begun laying the foundations to support accurate political prices from Republicans.
“This will be a long-running battle,” says Sen. Chuck Schumer, a Democrat and minority leader in New York, providing amendments for members of his party to fight Trump's fiscal agenda. He said they were lined up to do so. “Democrats will keep their floors all day long to expose the ways Republicans want to cut billionaires' taxes while blocking what Americans care about most.”
Passing the budget resolution was a key step towards enacting Trump's financial agenda. This is a process complicated by competing strategies between the House and Senate Republicans about the best ways to achieve presidential priorities.
“People are counting on us,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican of South Carolina, and chairman of the Budget Committee, declared on the floor before the vote rally began. “They are relying on this Republican majority to give the president the money they need to do the work he has promised, and we are trying to deliver it.”
“I don't care how long it will take if it's 5am,” Graham added. In the end it took me around 5am.
For Democrats who didn't have enough votes to block the Republican budget, the llama vote slows down the roll, challenges GOP priorities, and damages attacks Republicans when possible. They were meant to create a way to force offensive votes and continue in next year's midterm elections. Senate rules allow members to propose unlimited number of budget amendments. This means that votes could continue until Democrats lose steam and allow the debate to end.
The first attempt at GOP Senator came in the form of proposals that would hinder tax cuts for those who make more than $1 billion a year. It was intended to drive Democrats' claims that Republicans wanted to cut the spending of ordinary Americans just to reward billionaires with tax cuts.
“I ask my Republican colleague: yes or no? Do you believe that billionaires should get another tax cut?” Schumer said, introducing the proposal. It almost completely failed along the party line, setting the tone of the night when Democrats were expected to win a substantial change to their budget blueprint.
When the night rose, Democrats proposed similar proposals to protect food prices and Medicaid funds.
Most of the votes were along partisan boundaries, but some Republicans broke with their party in support of the democratic proposal.
The two Republican senators broke the ranks on multiple occasions overnight. Maine Sen. Susan Collins supports two democratic proposals aimed at blocking Superrich's tax cuts, with both Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley saying they're in the way of maternal health care. supported measures to protect Medicaid funds. Holy also voted in favor of an amendment that would try to curb the hedge fund's impact in the detached housing market.
Despite these asylums, the corrections failed. Still, Collins and Holy votes could serve as political insulation and could advocate for independence from party orthodoxy when proven useful.
