re: There was a $400 billion blank check for "pork" in the PACT Act AKA Vets bill

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To his credit, Toomey was a stick in the mud about this with the first vote. It doesn't explain why the 30 other Senators flipped their votes.

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There is a fundamental difference between a vote for a bill before it goes to conference committee and a vote for a bill after it does so.

Before, you can vote for a popular bill with the expectation that any deficiencies can be worked out in conference, especially if such deficiencies only exist in one of the versions. After, you are stuck with the bill as is.

I think the Republicans let themselves be set up here, and the Dems were more than willing to help. More should have stood with Toomey to get the rewording done in the original bill. But, now the damage is done.