House Republicans fail to pass RSC bill.

[Ragnus]

When only Republicans were voting on it.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2...ive-budget.php

What was supposed to be a routine vote in the House -- to knock down an amendment authored by conservative Republicans -- turned into pandemonium on the House floor Friday, as Democrats tried to jam the plan through, and hang it around the GOP's necks.

The vote was on the Republican Study Committee's alternative budget -- a radical plan that annihilates the social contract in America by putting the GOP budget on steroids. Deeper tax cuts for the wealthy, more severe entitlement rollbacks.

Normally something like that would fail by a large bipartisan margin in either the House or the Senate. Conservative Republicans would vote for it, but it would be defeated by a coalition of Democrats and more moderate Republicans. But today that formula didn't hold. In an attempt to highlight deep divides in the Republican caucus. Dems switched their votes -- from "no" to "present."

Panic ensued. In the House, legislation passes by a simple majority of members voting. The Dems took themselves out of the equation, leaving Republicans to decide whether the House should adopt the more-conservative RSC budget instead of the one authored by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan. As Dems flipped to present, Republicans realized that a majority of their members had indeed gone on the record in support of the RSC plan -- and if the vote closed, it would pass. That would be a slap in the face to Ryan, and a politically toxic outcome for the Republican party.

So they started flipping their votes from "yes" to "no."

In the end, the plan went down by a small margin, 119-136. A full 172 Democrats voted "present."

Moments after it failed, RSC Chairman Jim Jordan took to Facebook.

"Our Republican Study Committee (RSC) balanced budget came within 18 votes of passing on the House Floor today," he wrote. "I am disappointed we did not win, but this is the closest we have ever been to passing our balanced budget. I am motivated to keep fighting to balance the budget and begin paying down our national debt."

We'll have video of the chaos soon.

Very risky move as far as the House side of things were concerned but hilariously awesome none the less.

[Cantih]

[Alleya]

Thank goodness for election season. That's when the dems tend to grow their balls for a while.

[Salodin]

I'm seriously impressed at how clever that was lol.

[Anton]

Now that is some funny shit.

All of a sudden it's like "HOLY SHIT wait what the fuck are we doing?" Don't fall asleep in the chairs lol

[Talint]

The political analyst part of me hates this, and feels that this just feeds into the never-ending cycle of parliamentary tricks that lets us get nothing done.

The liberal part of me loves this, and notes that this is why Nancy Pelosi is awesome. (well, Steny Hoyer anyway).

[Senoska]

Excitedly awaiting the video.

edit:

[*Shinzon*]

This budget was a nightmare, but it's not like Paul Ryan's solves anything either.

Yeah no kidding, everyone should have to pay taxes though and it'll solve part of the budget issues too.