In fact, with
two minor exceptions, every single vote that has passed the U.S. Senate since
the beginning of this Congress in January has passed with at least—usually more
than—93 percent of support from Democrats.
“While
Republicans have done nothing to create jobs and help the middle class, on
other topics like passing clean funding for Homeland Security and confirming
Loretta Lynch, Senator McConnell has done the right thing by bringing bills and
nominations to the floor that Democrats can support,” Senate Minority Leader
Harry Reid’s spokesman Adam Jentleson told Breitbart News. “Democrats hope this
trend will continue.”
Since January, according to the U.S. Senate vote
count website, there have
been 10 nominations confirmed. Each one has seen unanimous support from
Democrats who voted, but varying levels of Republican support.
Seven
nominations—George C. Hanks, Jr., to be a U.S. district Judge for the
Southern District of Texas, Alfred H. Bennett to be a U.S. district Judge for the
Southern District of Texas, William P. Doyle to be a Federal Maritime Commissioner,
Carlos A. Monje, Jr., to be Assistant Transportation
Secretary, Christopher A. Hart to be National Transportation Safety
Board chairman, Daniel Henry Marti to be Intellectual Property
Enforcement Coordinator and Michael P. Botticelli to be Director of National Drug
Control Policy—passed the Senate unanimously. That means all senators who voted
on the nominations voted in favor, with no GOP opposition.
On the nomination of Russell C. Deyo to be Under Secretary
for Management for the Department of Homeland Security, only two Republicans
voted against it: Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT) and David Vitter (R-LA). On Ash
Carter’s nomination to be Secretary of Defense, just five
Republicans—Sens. Roy Blunt (R-MO), John Boozman (R-AR), Mike Crapo (R-ID),
Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Jim Risch (R-ID)—voted no.
The nomination
of Loretta Lynch to be Attorney General, replacing Eric Holder—the most recent confirmation, passing on Thursday afternoon—saw all
Democrats vote in favor joined by 10 Republicans. They are: McConnell and Sens.
Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Thad Cochran (R-MS), Susan Collins (R-ME), Jeff Flake
(R-AZ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Mark
Kirk (R-IL), and Rob Portman (R-OH).
McConnell broke
a pre-election promise that no attorney general nominee would
be considered in his Senate if that nominee supported Obama’s executive
amnesty, something that Lynch testified she supports.
In addition to
those nominations that all passed with unanimous support from Reid’s Democratic
conference in 2015, there have been eight pieces of legislation that passed the
U.S. Senate so far this Congress—almost all with unanimous Democratic Party
support.
The first bill to pass in 2015, the Terrorism Risk Insurance
Program Reauthorization Act of 2015, passed the U.S. Senate 93-4. Sens. Maria
Cantwell (D-WA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT)—an
independent who caucuses with Democrats—were the only Democrats to vote against
it. The only other vote against was from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), a Republican
who’s currently seeking the GOP nomination for the presidency but at the time
was still mulling a run. Since two of the three senators not voting were
Democrats—Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Reid himself—that means that 41
Democrats voted for it. This was the worst vote for Democrats all Congress,
with a whopping 93 percent of their conference that voted on the bill voting
for it and just 7 percent voting against it.
Of the other
seven pieces of legislation that passed the U.S. Senate so far this Congress,
three—a Veterans Affairs bill dealing with mental health of
veterans, an anti-child pornography bill, and the recent anti-human trafficking bill that paved the way for Lynch’s
nomination vote—passed unanimously with no opposition from Republicans or
Democrats. A fourth, the so-called “doc fix” which raised the national debt by
nearly $200 billion without offsetting cuts to pay doctors who accept Medicare
more, passed with unanimous Democratic support and only eight Republicans
voting against it. Those eight Republicans were: Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-AL),
Richard Shelby (R-AL), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Mike Lee (R-UT), David Perdue (R-GA),
Marco Rubio (R-FL), Ben Sasse (R-NE), and Tim Scott (R-SC).
The Department
of Homeland Security (DHS) bill that funds President Obama’s executive amnesty
despite pre-election promises from Republicans they would do no such thing—the
other bill that passed thanks to Democratic support—saw no Democrats vote against it. Only Republicans—31 of
them—opposed the measure to fund Obama’s amnesty, and McConnell got it passed
with a coalition of 45 Democrats and 23 Republicans.
There are only
two measures—both bills—which passed the U.S. Senate this Congress without the
at least 93 percent but usually unanimous support from Democrats: a bill
blocking Obama’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ambush elections rule
and a bill that would have approved the Keystone XL pipeline. The NLRB vote passed on purely partisan lines, with 53
Republicans voting for it and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) actually joining all
45 Democrats voting to oppose it.
The Keystone pipeline bill saw all Republicans who were
voting—Rubio didn’t vote—vote in favor, joined by 9 Democrats: Sens. Mark
Bennet (D-CO), Tom Carper (D-DE), Bob Casey (R-PA), Joe Donnelly (D-IN), Claire
McCaskill (D-MO), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Heidi Heitkamp (D-SD), Mark Warner (D-VA)
and Jon Tester (D-MT).
It’s worth
noting that President Obama vetoed both the NLRB bill and the Keystone bill. While Republicans tried to override
Obama’s Keystone veto, they failed.
What’s perhaps
most interesting about all this data is that there are 54—a
majority—Republicans in the U.S. Senate and just 46 Democrats. The GOP majority
is because of the midterm elections last November, which saw a nine-seat swing
in favor of Republicans—one of the biggest in history. But it’s quite clear
from the empirical data that nothing has changed, and Reid’s office is clearly
quite happy about it. It’s as if he’s still the Senate Majority Leader.
McConnell on
the other hand is getting beat all over the place. Whether it’s by choice or by
accident, either way he currently has no defense for his failures as a leader.
Offered the opportunity to comment on this story before publication,
McConnell’s office did not respond by press time.
Read More Stories About:
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/04/23/exclusive-empirical-vote-data-shows-democrats-still-control-us-senate-harry-reids-office-rejoices/
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