FreedomWorks Foundation Content

Senate Republicans Split Three Ways on Budget: “Federalists” vs. “Nationalists” vs. “RINOs”

It has been 1,126 days since the Democrat-led Senate passed a budget. Despite this embarrassing dereliction of duty, on May 16th Senate Democrats forced votes on four budget proposals authored by Republicans. The Republicans countered by forcing a vote on President Obama’s unfeasible plan that would drastically raise government spending and taxes (it was defeated unanimously). Democrats voted against every single Republican budget, despite having failed to offer one of their own.

Prior to the vote, FreedomWorks issued a Key Vote notice  in favor of separate budget plans offered by tea-party-aligned Senators Pat Toomey (PA), Mike Lee (UT), and Rand Paul (KY).  Although Senator Paul’s budget is the most effective proposal for solving our country’s spending crisis, all three offer bold solutions and would be a dramatic improvement on the current unsustainable spending. 

In order to help our grassroots members hold Senate Republicans accountable to their promises, we’ve created this chart to show which Senators are most firmly dedicated to solving our country’s economic crisis. 

Notice how the voting breaks down:

  • 14 GOP Senators voted for all four Republican budget proposals. (We include Senator Rand Paul (KY) in this group, since, although he voted against the House-passed budget authored by Rep. Paul Ryan (WI), he did so only because he believed it did not go far enough.) These 14 Senators show a true dedication to reducing government spending, balancing the budget, eliminating waste, and averting the impending debt crisis. 
  • 5 Senators voted for three out of four GOP budgets (specifically, these Senators voted for Ryan and Toomey and either Lee or Paul).

The above two groups we describe as “federalists.”

  • 23 Senators voted only for the Ryan and Toomey budgets.

This group we describe as “nationalists.” 

  • 4 Republicans voted with the Democrats against all of the GOP budget proposals: Scott Brown (MA), Susan Collins (ME), Dean Heller (NV), Olympia Snowe (ME).

This last group, we dub “RINOs.” Like the Senate Democrats, they earn a dishonorable mention.

For more information on these budget plans, see our handy Budget Report Card.