Understanding How Congress Works

I mentioned this post to at least one class yesterday. The main point Dr. Taylor makes is that most House Republicans voted to approve a rule coming from the Rules Committee that let them take up the fiscal cliff deal out of order, then turned around and voted against the deal more as a matter of political positioning (saving face with conservative constituents/ primary voters) more so than outright opposition to the deal. They bargained to limit tax increases, did the best they could, let things drag out a long time -- again for positioning -- and then accepted the deal without spending cuts or other entitlement reforms because, at some level, the tax policy was the main thing they cared about in the first place.

The votes for final passage of a bill are not always the most indicative of how Member of Congress thinks about an issue.