Evan Bayh is a favorite punching-bag here, for good reason.
He was a corporate Blue Dogish Democrat while in the Senate; he gave up a safe Indiana Senate seat, that went to a conservative Republican in 2010; he said he wanted to go home, but ended up a Washington lobbyist for the Chamber of Commerce, among others; he works for Fox "News" as a political commentator; etc.
Somehow, I ended up on an email list for No Labels, an absurd, billionaire-funded group that believes that Democrats can be convinced that cutting Social Security and Medicare is a good idea.
So today, I got an email from Bayh, with "time" as the subject.
Details, below.
Here's the text of the email, sans links.
Notice that cutting Social Security and Medicare -- the obvious goal of No Labels and their billionaire backers -- is not mentioned.
Here we go again. With just five days left for the Super Committee to reach a debt deal, hyper-partisanship is once again putting America’s future -- and yours -- in grave peril. Click here to tell Congress to do its job.
America’s credit rating was downgraded in August because Congress couldn’t put our country’s fiscal house in order. Imagine how financial markets will react if lawmakers kick the can down the road again. Imagine the damage that will be done by $1.2 trillion in automatic budget cuts if Congress fails to reach a deal.
It won’t be pretty… not for our country, not for our economy and not for you.
That’s why I urge you to contact your member of Congress right now… not later today, not tomorrow and certainly not when the final hours before the Thanksgiving deadline are ticking away.
My friends at No Labels, a nationwide movement to end hyper-partisanship and gridlock that I’m proud to be a part of, are making it easy for you to speak up now.
“We the people” -- Republicans, Democrats and Independents alike -- must send a clear and urgent message to Congress: DO YOUR JOB! There are good ideas and common sense solutions on both sides of the aisle. And it’s long past time for America’s national interest to be put above party interest by every member of Congress.
But that won’t happen unless you demand it. Thanks for taking a stand against hyper-partisanship and… standing up for America.
Bayh neglects to mention that the "$1.2 trillion in automatic budget cuts if Congress fails to reach a deal" would happen over 10 years, and only if Congress votes for that to happen.
Congress created the supercommittee, and can vote to disregard its recommendations, or the "automatic" budget cuts.
Odds are the supercommittee will fail -- Grover Norquist-beholden Republicans won't support any tax increases at all, and Democrats won't support another deficit-reduction plan that only cuts spending on popular domestic programs.
We'll know more next week.
But one thing we know now for sure -- lying-by-omission emails from has-beens like Bayh will have no effect on the ultimate outcome.