Republican Senators, the budget deal, and the unemployed

Profiles in Cowardice.

Eleven of the 12 sitting Republican senators facing re-election next year voted against the bipartisan budget agreement, which passed Wednesday with 64 votes. 

The “No” votes included:

Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas
Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas
Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama
Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky
Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana
Sen. James Risch of Idaho
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina
Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma
Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi

The only Republican senator facing re-election in 2014 who supported the agreement was Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate who will likely not face a serious primary challenge next spring.

The budget deal -- the first one passed by the Senate in over four years in almost nine months -- did not fund benefits for the long-term unemployed, but does blunt the short-term effects of the sequester, particularly for defense contractors.  The conservatives moaned and groaned anyway.

Before the vote, many outside groups on the right, notably the Club for Growth, Heritage Action and FreedomWorks, panned the budget plan and promised to punish lawmakers who supported it. (The bill, which sets spending levels through fiscal year 2015, would replace much of the budget caps instituted in the Budget Control Act. The move would effectively loosen up much of the spending restrictions under “sequestration,” a policy many conservatives generally liked because it reined in federal spending.)

When the attitude of some in the GOP is to put children to work mopping floors at their schools in exchange for lunch, you can understand why the Scrooges and Grinches this holiday season seem even more hard-hearted than usual.

Egberto is much harsher on the Democrats in the budget negotiation than I am.

Payday lenders lose

They don't lose much, but at least they got beaten.

It wasn’t even close. Today, the Houston City Council voted 15-2 to join every other major Texas city except one (hello, Fort Worth) in regulating payday loan companies.

Last month, Houston Mayor Annise Parker dropped a compromise plan, saying she wanted “a united front” with other Texas cities.

The lopsided vote surprised some Council observers, who had at least expected a procedural move to delay the vote. Instead, seesawing councilmembers said they felt city action was necessary in light of the Texas Legislature’s failure to do much of anything to rein in the payday loan industry.

The "procedural move" would have been a 'tag' by CM James Rodriguez, who has distinguished himself in the worst possible way with regard to the payday lending ordinance.

One of the ‘nay’ votes came from Councilmember Helena Brown, aka “Helena Handbasket,” who rails against funding for things like AIDS prevention. The other ‘nay’ was Councilmember James Rodriguez, who evidently was unpersuaded by a withering column this morning (“This payday loan column is for you, Councilman Rodriguez”) by the Chronicle‘s Lisa Falkenberg in which she checks out Rodriguez’s claim that his constituents are unconcerned about the issue by, you know, talking to his constituents.

[...]

Rodriguez, who is on his way out of office and is tied to a Cash America lobbyist, has been real cute about his post-council plans, laughingly telling Falkenberg that he’s “keeping all options open” when asked whether he plans to go into the payday loan business.

My friend Neil called it like it is on FB yesterday.

Is it any surprise that Councilman James Rodriguez -- who was a force behind the repulsive anti-food sharing ordinance -- is now leading opposition to City of Houston regulation of the payday lending industry? I've long thought Mr. Rodriguez a lousy public servant. His imminent departure from City Council will benefit Houston. 

To refresh: Rodriguez is a member of the Carol Alvarado/Marc Campos gang, affectionately referred to as "We Know How to Lose and Not Get Things Done", which just lost another city council race last week.  Some serious self-examination is long overdue among that crew.

Update: Rodriguez completely lost his mind on Twitter yesterday evening after the vote, lashing out at Falkenberg, Chron sportswriter Jose de Jesus Ortiz, and Texpatriate's Noah Horwitz. See his Tweets embedded at the end of Texpate's post here.  That's a person who needs to take their medication.

Update II:  You know you've struck a nerve when Marc Campos is calling somebody "chickenshit".

Texas Leftist runs down the changes the ordinance mandates, and Stace gave the instructions this morning that helped predict the outcome.  Here's to more progress like this in the new year.