Senate Dems to Pres Obama: No Freeze on Spending

The applause had barely ended on the President's State of the Union Address before the Senate had put the kibosh on one of the initiatives therein. From the AP yesterday:

Just days after President Barack Obama endorsed a partial freeze on domestic spending, his Democratic allies in the Senate have rejected a plan attempting to do pretty much the same thing.

Old-school Democrats were the driving force in killing the bipartisan legislation, sponsored by Alabama Republican Jeff Sessions and Missouri Democrat Claire McCaskill. Their plan was slightly modified version of Obama's that would have permitted domestic agencies an increase of just about 1 percent, with slightly higher boosts for the Pentagon.

I'm not sure what's more astonishing: the incomprehensible level of spending that this Congress and this administration have achieved (let us anticipate a popular criticism that often crops up at this point by noting that it was no better when George Bush was over-spending) or that there are actually people who couldn't limit themselves to incomprehensible plus 1%.

The AP also noted that

A 56-strong majority of senators supported the plan but it failed because 60 votes were required. The vote came the morning after Obama threatened to veto spending bills that would exceed a domestic spending freeze.

Roll call here. H/T the Fred Thompson Show.