The House did. They passed a CR bill that contained full funding for the military for the rest of the year and sent it to the Senate. The blame falls squarely on the Dems who have no trouble holding the troops hostage to further their political agenda. And as a result, they won.
That said, the 40 billion + the value of those other concessions in dollar terms is going to approach or exceed the 61 billion promised.
You can drink the Kool-aid. Initially, the Young Guns (Cantor, McCarthy, and Ryan) said they wanted a $100 billion cut in the FY-2011. That was changed to $35 billion because it was only half a year left. Responding to pressure from the GOP freshmen and other conservatives, the number was changed to $61 billion. Now we are supposed be happy with $38.5 billion, a little more than what the Young Guns wanted initially. And before we start celebrating, let's see where and how these cuts are made. It could be a lot of smoke and mirrors using accounting gimmicks that result in far less spending cuts than the $38.5 billion. Chump change regardless.
And, as stated, finally getting an up-down vote on abortion providers is historic. Closing off abortion money in Washington DC is historic. It is far more important than any money issue. It will reveal the soul of the nation.
Historic? Tell that to Bart Stupek. And the vote is not about abortion if you mean the vote in the Senate on whether to fund PP or not. It is meaningless and could well result in some Reps voting for it with excuse that they need to continue to have poor women provided medical services to screen for cancer. And the Dems could use the vote against the Reps in 2012. I suspect they would like to get the Reps on the record as well. Finally, will the vote even take place on the issue? You need 60 votes for cloture.
The vote on abortion, no matter how handled, will be historic.
Putting it off or voting it down is the same thing. There is no hiding on this one.
As stated about the budget vote, there is no way that the House could have out-voted the Senate + the President. It is not possible.
And the troops are NOT removed from being a pawn in future budget battles, which is the point I was trying (apparently not written very well :>) to make.