The Senate has overwhelmingly passed the House’s short-term continuing resolution (two weeks, $4 billion in cuts) by a final vote of 91 to 9.
Five Republicans, three Democrats and one Socialist voted against the bill:
Sens. Orrin Hatch (R., Utah), Mike Lee (R., Utah), Rand Paul (R., Ky.), Mike Crapo (Idaho), Jim Risch (R., Idaho), Patty Murray (D., Wash.) Carl Levin (D., Mich.) Tom Harkin (D., Iowa) and Bernie Sanders (S., Vt.).
“Everybody’s proud of the fact that there’s cuts,” Paul told reporters after the vote. “But it’s not enough to change statistically the difference between the president’s budget and this budget, they’re essentially the same.”
UPDATE: Here is Hatch’s statement:
The cuts in this bill are a start, but don’t go far enough to bring fiscal sanity back to Washington. Our national debt is more than $14 trillion and will hurt our economy and mortgage the future of our children and grandchildren unless we act now to put the brakes on this runaway spending.
Translation here.
UPDATE II: President Obama has signed the bill. And the finger pointing continues.