Washington: Doc Hastings

Earlier today, by a vote of 244-188, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act - the massive economic stimulus package that President Barack Obama has requested from Congress.

All votes in favor were cast by Democrats, with every Republican voting no. The Republicans were joined by eleven conservative Bush Dog Democrats, including Idaho's Walt Minnick.

Republicans have supplied various phony excuses for voting against the rescue legislation, from "there's not enough tax cuts" to "the Democrats drafted this bill and didn't seek our input."

When Republicans were in the majority, they didn't think twice about excluding Democrats when putting legislation together.

Washington state's U.S. House delegation once again split down the middle the Economic Stabilization Act, better known as the revised bailout bill.

The state's nine Representatives split their votes 5-4 just as they had done earlier in the week. This time, however, they voted mostly "no", despite the revised bill's passage in the House, 263-171.  All three Republicans voted against the bill, joined by two of the state's six Democats.

The U.S. House of Representatives has voted against the Wall Street bailout bill this morning by a count of 228-205. The split was bipartisan, with 133 Republicans and 95 Democrats joining forces to block the $700 billion supplement to the financial industry.

The Washington delegation was likewise split, though slightly more partisan with five of the six Democrats voting in favor of the bill, save for Jay Inslee (D-Bainbridge Island) who joined all three Republicans for the "no" vote.

Washington's Congressional delegation spoke out in favor of today's decision by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates' decision to re-open the bidding process for the Air Force KC-767 tankers. Airbus had won the initial contract, which would have cost the state's economy a significant amount of money, but the process was discovered to be flawed by the Government Accountability Office.