On MSNBC's Morning Joe today Joe Scarborough made the statement about the house vote on unemployment extensions yesterday "why would Nancy Pelosi blame the republicans for the failure to pass unemployment extension?" Scarborough implied that it was utterly ridiculous that republicans should get the blame for the bill not passing since the democrats still have the majority until the end of this year in the house. On he face of it, you may think Joe has a point. In the current congress there are 256 democrats, 178 republicans, and 1 vacant seat in the state of Florida. But when you actually look at the vote tally from yesterday, you may get a different picture?
This is how the house democrats voted on the unemployment extension:
237 - Yes votes 11 - No votes 7 - Non votes
This is how the house republicans voted on the unemployment extension:
21 - Yes votes 143 - No votes 15 - Non votes
Looking at these numbers, even if Math was not your favorite subject, Pelosi clearly has a valid point. When you review the vote totals, the overwhelming majority of democrats voted to extend unemployment benefits ( 237 Yes, 18 No), whereas the overwhelming majority of republicans voted against extending unemployment benefits ( 21 Yes, 158 No). I included for both parties the non votes totals with the no vote totals.
This is the game that the corporate media and pundits have been playing for two years now in regards to congressional legislation. Democrats will overwhelmingly vote for a bill ( with one or two defectors, ie blue dog democrats) and republicans will 100% vote against a bill and the question that will get asked by mainstream media and pundits will be "Why couldn't the democrats pass the bill, they are in the majority?" The valid question should be "Why are republicans 100% of the time voting against things, even things that they have championed for years?"
This question will apparently never be asked by corporate media?
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