The time for the big vote on lifting the national debt ceiling had come for the House of Representatives. Several of the television networks had promised they’d break into their regular programming to cover the voting. The numbers on Resolution 243 began to appear at the bottom of our TV screens by party in the usual way, the number voting aye, the number voting nay, and those who still hadn’t voted.
An unusual thing happened. The number of electronic votes in the Republican column shepherded by House speaker Kevin McCarthy kept accumulating, but the number of Democratic members casting votes seemed stuck in the thirties and finally the low forties. Eventually, the total aye votes, mostly but not entirely from Republicans, reached the magic number of 217, the majority of those eligible to vote.
It was as though a logjam had broken. The number of Democrats voting then increased rapidly – until the final tally minutes later showed more Democrats than Republicans supporting the resolution. Resolution 243 passed the House by a resounding 314 to 117, with all but 71 Republicans and 46 Democrats supporting it.
The networks took no note of this behavior. They switched to the White House, where president Joe Biden gave his relieved thanks to the House for voting by such a large margin to avoid the catastrophic consequences of default on the national debt.
The whole thing was a charade, a shell game. Two and a half hours earlier, the House had held a test of strength on consideration of the bill. Resolution 241 had been much closer, with 241 congressmembers supporting it and 187 opposed. In that vote, 189 Republicans had voted in support, with 29 opposed and four not voting. Among the Democrats, 52 supported the resolution and 158 were opposed, with three members not voting.
It was obvious from that vote that there was a clear bipartisan majority in support the Biden-McCarthy deal. The Democratic delay in voting later in the day was a signal that the House Progressive Caucus in combination with their ideological opposites, the far-right Republican rebels, didn’t have the votes to stop it. The late surge in Democratic votes was a futile inside-the-Beltway warning shot, the kind of gesture Washingtonians well understand.
Congressmembers network in caucuses as well as meet in committees. Members can belong to as many caucuses as they wish. The Democrats are almost evenly split between two big ideological caucuses, the 101-member Progressive Caucus and the 98-member New Democrat Coalition. The former pushed for more from the Biden-McCarthy deal, the latter supported Biden’s centrist compromise.
As might be expected, the 14-member New York State Democratic congressional delegation has more Progressives than New Democrats, of which by my count there were three: Gregory Meeks of Queens County, Joe Morelle of Monroe County and Pat Ryan of Ulster County.
When and why had Ryan chosen to join the New Democrats rather than the Progressives? His office has not yet responded to repeated requests for information about the caucuses to which he belongs.
“The New Democrat Coalition is made up of nearly 100 forward-thinking Democrats who are committed to pro-economic growth, pro-innovation, and fiscally responsible policies,” the caucus’s website states. “New Democrats are a solutions-oriented coalition seeking to bridge the gap between left and right by challenging outmoded partisan approaches to governing. New Democrats believe the challenges ahead are too great for members of Congress to refuse to cooperate purely out of partisanship.
Ryan has been willing to work with congressional Republicans on many issues, especially two freshmen GOP members from the Hudson Valley, Marc Molinaro and Mike Lawler. Just last Saturday, June 3, he, Molinaro, and former congressmember Chris Gibson were in Saugerties (now in Molinaro’s district) to call for expanded healthcare for military families. On May 11, Ryan and Lawler called for the federal government to declare a state of emergency in New York in response to the migrant crisis.
In his actions, Ryan seems to be following I the footsteps of president Joe Biden, who at his signing of the bill averting a default on the national debt doubled down on his views of how the federal government best gets its job done.
“My fellow Americans, when I ran for president I was told the days of bipartisanship were over and that Democrats and Republicans could no longer work together. But I refused to believe that, because America can never give into that way of thinking,” began Biden’s speech on that occasion. “Look, the only way American democracy can function is through compromise and consensus, and that’s what I worked to do as your president — you know, to forge a bipartisan agreement where it’s possible and where it’s needed.”
The Progressive Caucus had pushed for a stronger presidential political stance in an attempt to force the Republicans to fold in the face of the magnitude of the damage a debt default would have caused. Right or wrong, Biden had held to his very different view. And he had won.
Join the family! 
