I’m not sure what Tom Carper is up to with this vote

WASHINGTON – Democratic Sen. Tom Carper said Wednesday he doesn’t support every single item in President Barack Obama’s budget proposal for fiscal 2016. But he’s still the only senator who voted for the proposal this week.

GOP Sen. John Cornyn forced Tuesday’s vote on the president’s spending plan to get Democrats on the record opposing it. Ninety-eight senators voted against the plan, with one lawmaker, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, not voting.

Cornyn offered the plan as an amendment to a GOP fiscal 2016 budget proposal being debated in Congress.

“I just thought as a matter of principle the president’s budget was head-over-heels above the alternative and somebody needed to vote for it and I was happy to do it,” Carper said in an interview.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the ranking minority member of the Senate Budget Committee, said the budget plan in Cornyn’s amendment wasn’t the same as Obama’s proposal. He said the plan included in the amendment wouldn’t have raised the federal minimum wage and didn’t include two years of free community college, both elements of Obama’s proposal.

“I don’t know whose budget Sen. Cornyn is presenting, but it is certainly not the president’s budget,” Sanders said.

It appears that this is the week for a lot of votes on various budgetary philosophies. Carper voted with the GOP in opposition to the budget framework proposed by the progressive caucus yesterday, so maybe he is making amends?

Carper said he didn’t hear Sanders’ speech. He voted early and said he told the clerk, “If I’m the only one, I’m happy to vote for it, and we’ll just move on.”

The amendment may not have been identical to Obama’s budget, “but it was a very close facsimile,” Carper said.

I think it is odd that Nicole Gaudiano didn’t mention Carper’s GOP budget vote yesterday, but what do I know.
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