Elected officials count the votes (the job of the Majority Whip) before they’re cast. Bills are assured passage before they go to the floor. There are only two reasons bills ever fail on the floor like this:
- The majority whip really screwed up, and somebody’s going to pay
- This is a vote only for show, so that people can make pre-written speeches to reprint on their campaign materials during the next election, to rally their base
Take a wild guess which one this was.
So weird when politicians do those, you know, political things.
Thank goodness it’s just limited to Republicans or the country would really be in trouble.