BREAKING: House Passes Three-Week Continuing Resolution

Guy Benson | March 15, 2011 4:16 PM

The final tally: 271-158. I will post the roll when it's available. After the bill passes the Senate (which it will), this CR will fund the federal government through April 8th while cutting $6 Billion in spending. The Republican House majority has now acted in good faith on three separate occasions in the past month alone to prevent a federal shutdown.

Fifty-four Republicans voted no, primarily because they (a) believe the cuts are insufficient, and/or (b) are fed up with short-term fixes to the 2011 budget mess -- which was fomented by Democrats' inaction to begin with.

Contrast those GOP "nay" votes with the 104 House Democrats who also opposed the resolution, primarily because they view the $6 Billion in cuts as too deep (!)

For some perspective on how non-draconian -- paltry, even -- the GOP's overall $61 Billion 2011 cut proposal really is, watch this:

Jim Geraghty frames it another way:

Senate Democrats have drawn the line at $10 billion in cuts to the budget in this fiscal year, already half-expired.

The national deficit for the month of February was $222.5 billion, or $7.9 billion per day.

Thus, the Democrats’ cuts are sufficient to get the government running even for roughly 30 hours. Those harsh, draconian cuts proposed by the GOP — $61 billion — would have the government running even for about a week.

And yet, a majority of Democrats in the House and Senate are squealing about the GOP cuts as if they're the end of the world. As for the president...well, he's busy.

Republican leaders in the House and Senate must now pivot to drawing up a strategy for the next 2011 budget deadline. At some point (sooner rather than later, I suspect, given today's vote) temporary fixes will no longer be acceptable to a majority of the Republican caucus. Time for some serious, hard-nosed negotiations with Senate Democrats, methinks.

UPDATE: Here's the roll from today's vote.