I saw this at Firedoglake.
Two Democratic senators said Tuesday they wouldn’t vote to support an increase in the nation’s debt ceiling without corresponding action to address the country’s long term fiscal imbalances.
Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) and Evan Bayh (D., Ind.) told a hearing of the Senate Budget Committee they would vote against a needed increase in the limit the federal government can borrow unless Congress creates a commission to come up with proposals to bring the deficit and debt under control.
They don't want to raise taxes, they want to cut services in the middle of this Great Recession that was almost the second great depression. On the other hand, these folks have no problem bailing out Wall Street and losing billions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
As Dayen writes :
I don’t think it takes a lot of wondering to figure out what’s going on here. The same people who voted for tax cuts for the rich and endless wars costing trillions want to empower an unelected commission to mandate spending cuts and go around Senate rules. Given the unprecedented obstructionism of Senate Republicans, I don’t think anyone would get upset by a process that neutralizes the filibuster. But this is a selectively targeted process, one which also impinges on the power of committees to write laws and eliminates the possibility of amendment, which would surely be constructed to cut programs like Medicare and Medicaid, veterans benefits (!), Social Security and any other benefit program you can imagine, particularly ones that impact voiceless communities like the working poor. This is a grand push for Hooverism, and it comes at the worst possible time, when the recession is disproportionately impacting the poor and working classes, and safety net provisions can actually be a Keynesian stimulus to the economy.
And they are using the debt limit vote, threatening to force the United States into default if they don’t get a quick and easy way to cut people’s disability checks or bare-bones health benefits.
This is why I think that the smart move for Reid would be to go nuclear on this health care bill and eliminate the filibuster. The simple fact of the matter is that the dysfunction of the senate democratic caucus is a political liability for him and a policy liability for this country. We are fast approaching California levels of political insanity.
(1) The president can not get his people confirmed for the executive branch. Dawn Johnson is a clear example.
(2) The president has gotten one federal judge confirmed.
(3) While the House has managed to not only pass cap and trade legislation and health care; but they've moved through the budget process in a disciplined manner. The senate is far behind as I understand it.
(4) And now, we have senators refusing their constitutional duty to control the purse strings because it's hard and political. I mean wow.
Let's consider. Bayh and Feinstein don't want to raise taxes to balance the budget. They don't want to take responsibility to cut defense and social spending, and from what I'm reading this wouldn't even look at the defense portion of our budget but at social services. So they want to create an independent body, which Congress is supposed to be, and give this authority to individuals who are not elected. Because apparently, the voters will not allow them to destroy social security and medicare so they need to find a way around these pesky voters who are presenting this problem.
It just makes me tired. We elect these people to vote and represent us and then they pull ish like this.
Please contact Bayh and Feinstein and your senator.
Feinstein, Dianne - (D - CA)
331 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-3841
Bayh, Evan - (D - IN)
131 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-5623
Tell them the founders gave them the power of the purse and if they've got issues with the budget, then hell they're in the freakin' budget committee and in the majority so they've got the power to DO something about it.
If you want to cut services; propose it. If you want to cut defense; propose it. If you want to balance the budget during a recession when we need to be running deficits (so insane!)no one is in your way.
And if you don't have the political guts to stand up and do what you think needs doing because you'll be voted out of office, well good bye.
This offends me on so many different levels.