I am sick and tired of politicians who fail to realize the mess we are in.
I am sick and tired of poorly educated and unintelligent politicians who repeat slogans instead of actually thinking and looking at empirical data.
I am sick and tired of Democratic senators who try to undermine the President's attempts to pull us out from a depression.
I am sick and tired of Senator Evan Bayh, who wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal demanding that President Obama veto the current budget bill and impose austerity measures in the beginning of what may well be our Second Great Depression. I am sick and tired of Senator Bayh plotting to undermine President Obama's new budget.
President Obama is "Gearing up for a fight" on the budget. Senator Bayh is showing which side of that fight he is on.
More after the fold.
President Obama laid it on the line Saturday. This is a fight and he is ready to fight the forces upholding the failed status quo:
I realize that passing this budget won’t be easy. Because it represents real and dramatic change, it also represents a threat to the status quo in Washington.
snip
In other words, I know these steps won’t sit well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way of doing business, and I know they’re gearing up for a fight as we speak. My message to them is this:
So am I.
The President's Weekly Address: "Gearing up for a fight"
A threat to the status quo in Washington. Cue Senator Evan Bayh to come on stage.
Senator Bayh is fighting the current budget for the remaining fiscal year, and gearing up to fight President Obama's budget for change. He demands that the Senate vote the current budget down and, if not, that President Obama veto it. And where does he do this? In the paper owned by his masters: The Wall Street Journal.
This week, the United States Senate will vote on a spending package to fund the federal government for the remainder of this fiscal year. The Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009 is a sprawling, $410 billion compilation of nine spending measures that lacks the slightest hint of austerity from the federal government or the recipients of its largess.
The Senate should reject this bill. If we do not, President Barack Obama should veto it.
Deficits and Fiscal Credibility, By EVAN BAYH
Any doubt which side Bayh is on? It is not American working people losing jobs and homes. It is not on the side of Presdient Obama who is fighting for those American workers.
No, he thinks he can party like it's 1999. The bubbles are over. We're crashing. He is talking empty slogans of balanced budgets while President Obama seeks to use government spending to rescue and transform our economy. But the Wall Street Journal boys and the CNBC ranters love it.
The arrogance of this jerk amazes me:
As Indiana's governor, I balanced eight budgets, never raised taxes, and left the largest surplus in state history. It wasn't always easy. Cuts had to be made and some initiatives deferred. Occasionally I had to say "no."
Deficits and Fiscal Credibility, By EVAN BAYH
Yes, he did Indiana. The implicit criticism is "why can't President Obama balance America's budget?" FU, Evan Bayh. This is why I did not want him as VP. Obama made an excellent choice by rejecting Bayh and picking Biden.
And the inevitable demand for austerity from Bayh, his neo-Hooveristic solution:
Congress should vote "no" on this omnibus and show working families across the country that we are as committed to living within our means as they are.
Deficits and Fiscal Credibility, By EVAN BAYH
Now why do I call it neo-Hooverism? I'll let Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman explain from a column last October:
Will the next administration do what’s needed to deal with the economic slump? Not if Mr. McCain pulls off an upset. What we need right now is more government spending — but when Mr. McCain was asked in one of the debates how he would deal with the economic crisis, he answered: "Well, the first thing we have to do is get spending under control."
If Barack Obama becomes president, he won’t have the same knee-jerk opposition to spending. But he will face a chorus of inside-the-Beltway types telling him that he has to be responsible, that the big deficits the government will run next year if it does the right thing are unacceptable.
He should ignore that chorus. The responsible thing, right now, is to give the economy the help it needs. Now is not the time to worry about the deficit.
Paul Krugman, Oct. 16, 2008, Let’s Get Fiscal
President Obama is ignoring the "village chorus" of Washington DC insiders and doing what is needed to rescue the American economy. And Evan Bayh is there to undermine him at every step of the way. Deficits during a depression and balance the budget and build surpluses in better times to pay off the deficit. That is so basic. And we can balance the budget by making government more efficient, cutting the bloated military and RAISING TAXES ON THE WEALTHY. It's only impossible if military spending stays at a level half of the military spending in the world and we refuse to tax wealth.
Of course, Bayh will not do what needs to be done.
Bayh, Lieberman, and other so-called "moderates" are plotting to gut President Obama's budget for next year.
Moderate and conservative Democrats in the Senate are starting to choke over the massive spending and tax increases in President Barack Obama’s budget plans and have begun plotting to increase their influence over the agenda of a president who is turning out to be much more liberal than they are.
A group of 14 Senate Democrats and one independent huddled behind closed doors on Tuesday, discussing how centrists in that chamber can assert more leverage on the major policy debates that will dominate this Congress.
Politico
"Moderate" my ass.
What is it all about? Protecting the wealthy. Balancing the budget is their ideological cover for f.cking working people and making sure wealthy people don't pay a fair share of taxes:
As for the tax increases on high-income earners called for in Obama’s plan, Bayh said, "I do think that before we raise revenue, we first should look to see if there are ways we can cut back on spending."
"The American people and businesses are tightening their belts," Bayh added. "I think we need to show that the government can economize as well."
Politico
Translation: protect the wealthy!
For President Obama to succeed, and America to survive, Senator Bayh must lose. It's that simple.
Tell Senator Evan Bayh he's an ass and that you support President Obama
Update I: Republican Minority Leader McConnell hearts Bayh: From TPM:
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was so pleased with Bayh's op-ed that he formally inserted it into the Congressional Record this morning. From McConnell's speech:
As the junior senator from Indiana put it this morning in an insightful Op-Ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, this bill was drafted last year, and 'Since then, economic and fiscal circumstances have changed dramatically which is why' -- as he put it -- 'the Senate should go back to the drawing board
.'
TPM
Next, Bayh will be lining up to kiss Rush Limbaugh's ass like the rest of the deadenders.