The Senate voted 81-18 in favor of the deal to approve a continuing budget and raise the debt limit. The roll call isn’t up yet, but Sens. Mark Pryor and John Boozman voted for cloture in an 81-18 vote and I presume the vote on the bill itself was the same.
The House is expected to complete action on the measure and President Obama has said he’d sign it by tomorrow.
Some interest remains in how many House members will oppose the deal, which gives the Tea Party faction none of what it had sought by way of derailing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Particular interest focuses on Rep. Tim Griffin, who joined 80 Republicans in a letter threatening to shut down government to get their way on defunding Obamacare and on Rep. Tom Cotton, who said even a debt default might be the kind of strong medicine the U.S. needed to get its house in order.
Given recent polling — Arkansas aren’t impressed with those who caused the shutdown — I’d bet Griffin for sure joins the majority. Cotton? Some of his key backers — the sort of people who associate with the Club for Growth and Heritage Action — favored taking the issue all the way to default.
Everyone is trying to be gracious, but the outcome was a victory for Democrats. For once, the angry, loud Tea Party and the well-financed megaphones used to exhort them, failed to roll over the opposition. And it cost Republicans mightily in public opinion.