While the scandals erupt around the WH illicit incompetance, and the left-wing leads itself into Iraq furor, Congress is considering cuts to the lifeblood of millions of Americans nation wide. And the dailykos crowd seems strangly uninterested.
Today the budget reconcilliation bill is up for a vote on the House floor. This bill contains some of the most egregious cuts to spending I could imagine. Futhermore, as we debate the vision and values of the Democratic party, the real policy representation of those values is slowly being destroyed by this budget bill.
And Republicans are getting the credit for saving those policies (from today's
Washington Post editorials)
Republican moderates stand up to the congressional leadership is a bit like experiencing Indian summer: It's enjoyable even though you know that it can end at any moment. Last week's display of moderate backbone was especially refreshing because it was bicameral. Not only did the Senate Finance Committee have to call off a session to extend some of the Bush tax cuts after Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) refused to go along, but -- even more surprising -- House leaders had to postpone a vote on a budget-cutting bill when GOP moderates balked at the degree to which the cuts would come at the expense of the poorest Americans.
It is not surprising that moderate Repugs decided to vote against this bill. There are tons of good reasons, including:
Cutting more than
$10 billion from
Medicaid
Cutting more than
$14 billion from
student loan programs
Cuts to
Food stamps cutting roughly
300,000 Americans from the program
These are programs that represent the vision for America that Democrats should hold high above the political fray, a vision where every individual has an opportunity for the basic means of existence - the food to survive, the medical treatment the most wealthy nation in the world can provide, and an education to foster individual success.
Instead, I see Repugs and special interest groups placing this in their media strategy, taking advantage of controversial cuts to vital programs. The Dems have misprioritized in a wave of glam policy stragegizing. Don't be fooled by the big rhetoric on the war in Iraq, or WH leaks - the lack of movement on these issues is symptomatic of the defeatist attitude that Washington democrats have held in recent history. From one point of view, it is risky to raise hell about spending cuts that you cannot stop in the face of a majority party willing to do everything to enact them.
But that risk is worth it.
We don't have a strong vision for getting out of Iraq, and I for one feel that's fine. I disagree with the route of focusing on the future instead of how we got there. It was stupid to go the way we did, and we should point that out. But it would be stupid to leave anytime soon either. Geopolitically, that's a big mess to leave for someone else to clean up for us.
If the Democratic Party is going to spread the big umbrella we need to become a majority party again, it will be by championing these sorts of programs more and more Americans will come to depend on as the economic malaise from Repug leadership continues to sink in. We know these programs work, and we know that tax cuts to the wealthiest 1% don't. Let's stop the psuedo-populist "truth-telling" and get down to make democrats a Real Deal populist party.
