Iran Sanctions Bill Passes The House

Eric Garris looks at the House roll call on the Iran petroleum sanctions bill and discovers that just 12 voted against it and only three of these were Republicans. These were Jeff Flake, Jimmy Duncan and, of course, Ron Paul. That’s not exactly an overwhelming number from the opposition party, and notably missing from the list of nays was that heroic “antiwar”figureJason Chaffetz. Of course, why would Chaffetz oppose imposing sanctions on Iran? He and many of his Republican colleagues are interested in starting a war with Iran, so imposing additional sanctions, no matter how counter-productive and doomed to fail, would hardly bother him.

To look at the larger policy question for a moment, it is remarkable that such an egregiously flawed sanctions measure can command the near-unanimous support of the House. There are reports that the administration has asked Kerry to delay the bill in the Senate until next year, so there will be some time before this becomes law, but given the depressingly broad bipartisan consensus behind this bill I don’t see how it will be defeated. This measure will do great economic harm to average Iranians, and it will help undermine whatever remains of the protest movement, and it will tighten the grip of leading members of the military and civilian establishments on the Iranian economy. Iran’s government will become more powerful relative to its people, and it will become even more resistant to making any concessions over the nuclear program.

P.S. I previously noted Chaffetz’s support for the Iran sanctions bill.