Conservative House Republicans delivered a stinging rebuke to Speaker John Boehner on Wednesday, as four dozen GOP lawmakers joined with almost every Democrat to defeat a six-week stop gap budget bill that also included extra disaster relief money for FEMA.
Those four dozen Republicans wanted deeper budget cuts in this temporary budget, while the over 200 Democrats wanted less in budget cuts and more money for FEMA.
"Washington needs to break the habit of spending money it does not have," said freshman Rep. Tim Huelskamp.
"This level of spending is far from meeting the goal we set for ourselves before coming to Washington last November," Huelskamp added, voicing the frustration of Tea Party lawmakers that spending has hardly gone down overall.
For Democrats, it was the perfect opportunity to embarrass the GOP leadership, to raise doubts about the ability of the Speaker to get anything done, and to make the case that Republicans want to cut too much in needed spending.
"This vote sent a clear message to Republicans," said number two House Democrat Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, "the American people want a bipartisan approach to running our government."
It wasn't immediately clear how Republicans would re-write the temporary budget plan, which was designed to last into mid-November.
The reason the "Continuing Resolution" is needed is that the Congress - once again - is not getting its work done on time for the budget.
The last time lawmakers approved all of their budget bills before the start of the new fiscal year was in 1994.
Congress is scheduled to be out next week on break, so the House and Senate must hammer out a deal before lawmakers can leave town until early October.
GOP leaders last night made clear to the rank and file what that might mean:
"Members are advised that a weekend session is now possible."
Unfortunately, this kind of short term work on the federal budget has become just standard operating procedure in the Congress.
Finally, who were the 48 Republicans who voted against their Speaker? Here is the list:
Amash MI
Austria OH
Barletta PA
Broun GA
Buchson IN
Burgess TX
Burton IN
Campbell CA
Canseco TX
Chaffetz UT
DesJarlais TN
Duncan SC
Duncan TN
Fincher TN
Flake AZ
Fleming LA
Franks AZ
Gingrey GA
Gohmert TX
Gowdy SC
Graves GA
Huelskamp KS
Huizenga MI
Hultgren IL
Johnson IL
Jordan OH
King IA
Lamborn CO
Landry LA
Lummis WY
Mack FL
Marchant TX
McClintock CA
Miller FL
Mulvaney SC
Neugebauer TX
Pearce NM
Poe TX
Posey FL
Rohrabacher CA
Ross FL
Royce CA
Schweikert AZ
Turner OH
Walberg MI
Walsh IL
Westmoreland GA
Wilson SC
How about the 6 Democrats who broke with their leaders and voted to approve the stop gap budget?
Altmire PA
Holden PA
Kissell NC
McCarthy NY
Michaud ME
Welch VT
