GOP Takes Aim at START

After Senate Republicans failed to amend the new START treaty Sunday, caucus leaders Mitch McConnell and Jon Kyl announced they would vote against the treaty. Still, Vice President Joe Biden and Democratic leaders were optimistic they’d have the votes needed to pass the measure—two-thirds of the Senate, in this case, since it’s a foreign treaty. Debate will continue at least through Tuesday. The treaty would require both the U.S. and Russia to reduce their deployed strategic nuclear warheads to 1,550 each within seven years, and to also cut their number of deployed strategic missiles and bombers to 700 each.