Lawrence O'Donnell: 'Most Bipartisan Vote to Increase the Debt Ceiling We Have Seen in a Very, Very Long Time'

August 9th, 2011 12:42 AM

Obama advisers, Democrat senators, and terminally stupid ideologues that have been for almost two days blaming Standard and Poor's downgrade of America's debt on the Tea Party have all been ignoring a very inconvenient truth.

According to MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell, "Last week's vote for a debt ceiling increase was the most bipartisan vote to increase the debt ceiling we have seen in a very, very long time" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: Almost half of the Congress almost always votes against increasing the debt ceiling. The Party out of power leaves raising the debt ceiling to the Party in power. That’s why Sen. Barack Obama voted against raising the debt ceiling when the Republicans had a majority in the United States Senate. It’s not that Sen. Obama was really opposed to raising the debt ceiling. He was just playing a political game with it trying to highlight Republican responsibility for the debt.

This year we saw something we hadn’t seen before: some Tea Party members of Congress claiming that they would do anything to prevent an increase in the debt ceiling no matter what. It turned out – big surprise – a lot of them were lying, and they did in fact vote for an increase in the debt ceiling. In fact, last week's vote for a debt ceiling increase was the most bipartisan vote to increase the debt ceiling we have seen in a very, very long time.

For the record, the House vote last Monday was 269-161 with 174 Republicans and 95 Democrats for, 66 Republicans and 95 Democrats opposed.

In the Senate, last Tuesday's vote was 74-26 with 45 Democrats and 28 Republicans for, 6 Democrats and 19 Republicans opposed.

Beside being "the most bipartisan vote to increase the debt ceiling we have seen in a very, very long time," this could have been one of the most bipartisan votes on something of consequence in years.

Yet all the blame for the downgrade according to White House officials, leading Democrats, and their media minions goes to the Tea Party.

I guess the Left only likes bipartisanship when they exclusively get their way.