As we noted earlier this week, the Continuing Resolution voted on in the House will increase spending, fund Obamacare, and extend the main welfare program without forcing Obama to reinstate work requirements.  This bill is really an embarrassment to everything House Republicans professed to stand for.  It will delay the major battles until March 27, 2013.  And let me tell you, they will really really really take the Democrats’ lunch money then.  Just wait and see.

The House passed the bill yesterday by a 329-91 margin.  Only 70 Republicans voted no.  It’s very telling that all but 21 Democrats voted for the CR, and half of the no votes were Blue Dogs who were trying to angle to the right in their tough reelection campaigns.  Obviously, they didn’t feel they were being treated to a “Satan sandwich.”  We were.

Click here to download the color-coded spreadsheet of the Republican vote from the Madison Performance Index.

Now the CR moves to the Senate where its passage is a forgone conclusion.  House Republicans will vote on a resolution of disapproval against Obama’s waiver of welfare work requirements next week, but there is no guarantee that McConnell will force a vote in the Senate.  Even if he does, Democrats will now have more leverage to oppose it.  They can point to the fact that Republicans were willing to renew the TANF program in the CR without attaching a work requirement provision.

And that is pretty much the end of the 112th Congress, folks.  That’s a rap…well, at least until the lame duck session – the session that was supposed to be eliminated as a result of the CR.  From here on out, it’s all about the elections, but we must be prepared for a major showdown during the lame duck.