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The Senate will pass the two-week budget extension, with $4 billion in cuts, this morning, probably by around 11:00am. And debasing themselves even further, they come up with the “we lost this round, but just you wait until next time” spin. It’s the Brooklyn Dodgers strategy, I guess. But they can’t even agree on what they want for next time, it seems.
Senate Democrats conceded Tuesday that House Republicans won round one of the budget fight, but they are vowing a bigger battle later this month.
Anticipating that showdown, Senate Democratic leaders are scrambling to unify their caucus as their colleagues express starkly different opinions on the best strategy to pursue.
Centrists who are facing tough reelections in Republican-leaning states want to support additional spending cuts for the rest of the fiscal year. Some are more willing to accept reductions to social programs than to defense and agriculture programs.
My favorite part of the story is this: Barbara Mikulski spends half of it decrying all the terrible cuts in the House GOP continuing resolution, and then adds, “but I also don’t want a government shutdown.” Neither does John Boehner, and he’s said it out loud as well, but it’s pretty clear who’s going to blink first here.
You can certainly see that by the fact that the House Democrats offered a smart motion to recommit yesterday, forcing the GOP to go on the record in support of Big Oil subsidies, and not one of them defected. Every single Republican voted to maintain Big Oil subsidies. That may hurt them in two years, but it completely failed to wedge their caucus yesterday. And so you have an upcoming showdown in a couple weeks between a unified caucus and one “scrambling to unify their caucus.” Figure out the winner.
Therefore, you’re going to see a budget for the rest of the year with huge cuts, maybe all the way up to that $61 billion level. Now the February employment report could show signs of a comeback in hiring, but adding $61 billion in near-term cuts to oil instability and state budget rollouts will do a great deal of damage to an economy that is not yet self-sustaining.
And nobody seems to be making that case.
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Good old Dems, fighting the good fight/s. If even half of them had any actual principles, and/or the desire to fight for them, we might actually have a decent country to live in.
The Dems need a collective brain transplant so they can shift the conversation back to jobs and the economy. The best budget solution is a robust employment level and a strong economy.
Cue the Kabuki show. I wish we could fire every last one of them. It galls me that you and I are paying they salaries. Lousy, unethical, unprincipaled, lobbyist whores.
“It’s pretty clear who’s going to blink first, here.”
After two years of bending over and spreading cheek by Obama and the democratic “leadership”, I would have to agree with that.
The Senate Dems will do as Obama wants despite even a 9 to 1 majority to do otherwise – as in killing the public option to please Obama.
Obama seems to be pointed toward getting rich post his 4 years – not toward being the leader of the Democratic Party or being someone that does more than talk about the ideals in the Dem platform.
If Obama – now that he does not have to work so hard to con Pelosi given her lack of power – wants to give more to the rich so as to get more after his term ends – he will do so. We won’t know what he wants to give until we get the “I was forced to do this” speech. Then the Senate will “reluctantly” go along – followed by Maddow explaining why it could have been so much worse and how the other guys are much worse.
The piper must be paid. The Dems, in the majority, went along with Obama’s plan (which even exceeded Bush’s) for more war and more mindless military procurement for world domination, and now after they lost the majority they’re going to see their favorite programs slashed because they neglected their base and spent too damned much money.
Only about a quarter of Americans approve of the US Congress (RCP ave.) and there’s no chance their unpopularity will be remedied any time soon. At least the R’s have the courage to take a political stand but the D’s don’t as many FDL readers have noted.
The case you’ll hear being made if the jobs numbers continue to creep up is this: tax cuts and austerity made it happen.
Nothing new here, just more Kabuki
some USA citizens have not gotten the memo, most live in DC, the USA has been in a Depression for the last 24 months, the WH is just playing with the un-employment numbers, thus the MSM use of the useless term job less recovery.
what is a centrist Democrat? is Ben Nelson a centrist? if so can we just called centrist dems trojan horses
why do all the centrist creeps join the Democrats?
has anyone seen or heard from a centrist Republican?
can we get a real democrat to primary Barbara Mikulski now? she gives real dems like FDR, JFk, LBJ, a bad name.
in 2012, I hope FDL develops a chart, that tells progressives who are centrist dems, and who are real dems, because our members hate “trojan horses, i mean centrist dems”
please can someone develop us a chart listing centrist dems in DC.
All of this is happening because the Senate did not do its job last year. The House passed all of the appropriations bills, but the Senate, with a 59 vote majority, failed to pass the appropriations bills. That is an EPIC FAIL for Harry Reid, Charles Schumer, and Dick Durbin. It is also an EPIC FAIL for Obama. None of this would be happening that the Democrats passed the appropriations while they had the majority.
Which raises the question, do the Democrats object to these cuts, or did Harry Reid and Obama deliberately not pass the appropriations so that the Republicans would take over the House, make the cuts, and take the blame.
if so can we just called centrist dems trojan horses
yes
1937 was 74 years ago.
So maybe there’s an Elliott Wave of stupidity.
I agree with you,
I love Maddow, but her love affair with Obama is getting old.
yesterday, Rachel brag about Obama stealing the Mitt Romney, Bob Dole health care bill from the GOP,
one would think that a dem president would steal ideas from democrats
would bush have stolen Ted Kennedy ideas about health care? no
“Creep up” is correct. The most recent BLS report stated: “Since a recent low in February 2010, total payroll employment has increased by an average of 93,000 per month.” On an employed base of 130m that’s 0.07% per month. Pouting baby can creep faster than that.
How this relates to population increases is unclear because the BLS has been seriously revising (i.e. muddling) population estimates.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
I can’t imagine how the Dems think ANYONE [other than their corporate masters] would vote for them, as they continually show their weakness.
Dems should take a clue from the Tea Partiers: voters will even support Teh Crazies, so long as Teh Crazies sound angry and somewhat organized.
Anybody check the price of gasoline lately?
Yeah, big oil needs those cuts.
Jon Walker has a fresh cross-post that just went up: “Non-Profit” Insurer Gives CEO Massive Retirement Package
1937? Say what?
Edit: Never mind. I see it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/nyregion/01flatbush.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Duke%20Snider&st=cse
This story says Hall of Famers like Duke Snider and Pee Wee Reese, and teammates like Carl Erskine, when they all lived in Brooklyn, would carpool to Ebbets Field or the Polo Grounds. Does my US Senator carpool? Does yours?
A Republican who couldn’t win the primary in his/her district…
1937 was when the mid-Depression austerity mania hit: Krugman.
The Senate needs to take the advice of Dr. King, whose words are just as relevant as when he said them in 1967:
“Congress appropriates military funds with alacrity and generosity. It appropriates poverty funds with miserliness and grudging reluctance. The government is emotionally committed to the war. It is emotionally hostile to the needs of the poor.
“And I had to answer by looking that person into the eye, and say ‘I’m sorry sir but you don’t know me. I’m not a consensus leader. I do not determine what is right and wrong by looking at the budget of my organization or by taking a Gallup poll of the majority opinion. Ultimately a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.”
Taking a principled stand involves a level or risk that many public servants conspicuously avoid, preferring the ease and convenience of furthering the status quo through worthless statements of good intentions and deferring difficult decisions to the future, when inevitably, they will become more difficult to resolve.
This cowardice disguised as “pragmatism” is unacceptable and must end now, but I am sure it will not end any day soon as long as Congress and others bow to the will of the moneyed class to whom they are increasingly dependent on for their survival. It is not pragmatism, it is a sellout of the best and highest interests of America and a massive IOU to the future.
Via Calculated Risk: Today is the 10th anniversary of Alan Greenspan’s famous testimony about the dangers of budget surpluses.
Much larger cuts than that could have been made quite easily if we had the PO, drug re-importation, etc. This just seems like healthcare reform and tax cuts all over again with the Democrats playing dumb, yet in the end they’re either advancing the status quo or making it worse. I guess it is better that the Democrats pretend that they were outsmarted then to admit their complicity.
And liking it!
Really liking it!
It’s amazing that Greenwald reports on this stuff, then in the next post says the only way to change the political status quo in Washington, is from the inside of the Dem party.
Have speculators run oil back up to $150/barrel, tank the US economy (the rest of the world is just collateral damage) and the Republicans sweep back into office. Not much of a plan, but there isn’t anything the Dems can do about it even if they were willing to try to save themselves.
No, it’s the Washington Generals strategy.
(and this isn’t just a joke, it’s a crucial truth)
How about the Dems wrap their little brains around cutting subsidies to corporations that are now operating off shore? That would go a very long way in cutting the budget.
How about the Dems wrap their little minds around some type of plan to help all the 99ers? That would go a long way in helping the economy and getting them re-elected.
How about the Dems wrap their little minds around why type of foreign aid is being spent and remove the military supplies and replace it with food and medicine? That would go a long way in cutting the budget and renewing a more adequate American Foreign Policy.
I’m sure he means that we replace the old dirty dawgs with newer more progressive members to congress.
Why would they do any of that PP? Haven’t you heard? They have a surefire election winning way. They’ve replaced the 2008 Hope (TM) with the brand new slogan that is sure to win them majorities in Congress, and re-elect Obama. He’s even stated it. WTF. WTF. WTF is exactly right.
LOL. He prob does. Doesn’t seem like too sound an idea though if the party is not interested.
“Centrists who are facing tough reelections in Republican-leaning states want to support additional spending cuts for the rest of the fiscal year.”
Progressives in Democratic held, conservative leaning, congressional districts need to let it be known that they are not going to vote for conservative Democrats and will vote instead for the Republican unless a liberal Democrat is on the ballot (you get the same policy with a conservative Dem or Republican representative).
If only 2% of progressives presented this ultimatum, and then followed through, that would be a 4% vote swing toward the Republican (2% lees for the Democrat & that same 2% tacked onto the Republican totals). The Dems would be faced with the choice of running a liberal and possibly winning or running with a conservative where defeat is a given.
Unless you can show the Democrats that you will not vote for them (or that you will vote for their opponent) they will always take the left for granted.
If Obama had been told this in March, 2009, then our wars would be over, there would be a public healthcare option, bankers would be in jail, unions would have card check, retirements would be secure, our Constitution restored and our prison population declining.
Why isn’t there a progressive tea party within the democratic party? If people actually believe we can reform from within (I certainly do not). We can either continue to read on FDL every day about how much the dems are like the repubs (and how it seems to suprise people every day) or we can create a third party (or revinvent one) or form a “tea party” within the current utterly corrupt group know as the democratic party ?
No Sarah Palin articles for like at least 3 days…LOVE IT.
Next time: sternly worded letters!
Those Republicans won’t know what hit ‘em.
Damn. A perfect “play-by-play” of what has been going on for the last two years.
“…the February employment report could show signs of a comeback in hiring,…”
If so, February will be the last month for a while. State and Local governments will start laying off in March to be followed soon by the school districts.
This is getting so old. One would have to think that the dems are trying to lose. Maybe they are, a far more cushy job in lobbying or on a board somewhere is awaiting them so why fight for us?