On yesterday, 2009 April 2, the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate voted on a draft of the Obama Budget; and the results of those votes were a score of House Democrats and two Senate Democrats voting with all the members of the Party of No (PoN) and against the Obama Budget.
The votes of the score and two on the draft Obama Budget raise several questions.
Who are the Ministers of No?
Why did these Democrats vote with PoN members and against moving America forward?
What are their plans for moving American forward?
What would their budget look like – the budget picture as portrayed by the PoN leaders?
Lets go to the jump page for the answers to these questions.
Ministers of No are:
All members of PoN now serving in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.
Democrats:
House
John Barrow (D-GA)
Dan Boren (D-OK
Bobby Bright (D-AL)
Travis Childers (D-MS)
Joe Donelly (D-IN)
Bill Foster (D-IL)
Parker Griffith (D-IL)
Suzanne Kosmas (D-FL)
Frank Katavil (D-MD)
Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
Betsy Markey (D-CO)
James Marshall (D-GA)
Jim Matheson (D-UT)
Mike McIntyre (D-NC)
Walt Minnick (D-ID)
Harry Mitchell (D-AZ)
Glenn Nye (D-VA)
Tom Perriello (D-VA)
Gene Taylor (D-MS)
Harry Teague (D-NM)
Senate
Evan Bayh (D-IN)
Ben Nelson (D-NE)
I'm looking forward to the Ministers of No explaining why they voted the way that they did and what their plans are for moving America forward.
Hopefully, they were not saying that the PoN budget was a better deal for middle and working class Americans than Obama’s budget.
You know, the PoN budget that had no figures and was void of any constructive ideas.
Yes, and counter to what has been written, the PoN budget did have ideas, but only ideas that served the plutocrats.
The PoN budget offered a continuation of President George W. Bush’s economic policies:
Income and estate tax breaks for the über wealthy.
Compressed real income/wages for middle and working class Americans.
Increased poverty - one in ten Americans are currently using food stamps.
More people without health care.
Continuation of laissez faire economic policies - the same policies that gave us the current economic and financial calamity and the multi-billion dollar, taxpayer funded bailout of the banks and other financial institutions.
I hope our Democratic friends, who voted with the members of the Party of No, were not voting for the PoN’s budget and the benefits that budget would bestow on the Plutocrats at the expense of middle and working class Americans.