Senate votes 64–34 to suspend debt ceiling, rejects amendment prohibiting sale of F-16s to Egypt http://bit.ly/Yml0ir
6:22 PM - 31 Jan 13 · Details
Senate votes 64–34 to suspend debt ceiling, rejects amendment prohibiting sale of F-16s to Egypt
Posted at 5:22 pm on January 31, 2013 by Twitchy Staff | View Comments
Whether you agree it’s one of the odder things to become law, there’s no question that a suspension of the nation’s $16.4 billion debt ceiling will soon have the president’s blessing. The House voted on Jan. 23 to kick the can down the road, and the Senate voted 64-34 today to do the same.
It doesn’t offset spending, but one thing the bill will do is hold lawmakers’ salaries in an escrow account if the House or the Senate does not manage to pass a budget by April 15.
One amendment to the debt ceiling bill that didn’t make the cut was Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s amendment prohibiting the sale of F-16s, tanks and other military hardware. (For more on that, see Twitchy’s coverage of a protester in Egypt holding a sign reading, “Obama you jerk, Muslim In a speech on the Senate floor, Paul said, in part:
I think it is a grave mistake to send F-16s and tanks to a country that detained American citizens on trumped up political charges. On a country that currently is still detaining Egyptian citizens on trumped-up political charges.
I think it is a blunder of the first proportion to send sophisticated weapons to a country that allowed a mob to attack our embassy and to burn our flag. I find it objectionable to send weapons, F-16s and tanks, to a company that allowed a mob chanting “death to America” to threaten our American diplomats.
Just how far down the road can this can be kicked?
