Congressman McDermott (D-WA) and Debt Ceiling

I heard Congressman McDermott (D-Wa) speaking on the news today about how irresponsible it is for anyone to vote against raising the debt ceiling. This clip from June mirrors much of what he had to say today, only today he spoke with much more urgency and conviction.



I knew there were debt ceiling votes back when Bush was president, so I thought I would check to see if McDermott voted "Aye" on them. The first one I checked was H.J. Res. 47/95 in 2006 increasing the statutory limit on the public debt. McDermott voted "Nay". I guess it wasn't a matter of being irresponsible back then.

Obama was the same way. I looked up his votes for debt ceiling increases during the time he was Senator. There were three opportunities for him to vote on those increases: he voted "Nay" once and "Abstained" twice. This is the same guy who voted "present" over 130 times while an Illinois state senator. I think this is what drives so many of us crazy, and unfortunately it goes both ways. Hopefully this new batch of congressmen voted into office in 2010 are different. A man can only hope.