[Peace-discuss] seperating the good from the bad democrats

[David Johnson]

Among Democrats this year, it was rejected 84-102, 
A list of those Democrats who voted against the CPC budget, which included House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), can be found here.

 
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, speaks at a January 16 news conference to announce new legislation about eliminating the federal debt ceiling. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Web Only// Features » March 22, 2013 
84 House Democrats Say 'No' to Austerity
The Congressional Progressive Caucus' budget may have failed, but it failed well.

BY Cole Stangler 
The Back to Work budget, among other things, called for raising taxes on the highest income bracket from 45 to 49 percent, taxing capital gains in the same way as ordinary income, enacting a financial transactions tax, returning Pentagon spending to 2006 levels, and implementing a carbon tax.

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives took up floor debate and voted on three Democratic alternatives to the Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) budget-the first a version of the Senate Democrats' budget, the second a proposal from the Black Caucus, and the third a budget crafted by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which with 72 members is the largest Democratic Caucus in the House.

The CPC's Back to Work budget, like the other Democratic budgets, never had a realistic possibility of passing in the House, which is dominated by a Republican majority that has now passed the Ryan budget three years in a row. But the CPC's ability to garner support on the Democratic side for its budget serves as one way of evaluating the kind of leverage the caucus has today in Congress. And while most media attention focuses on the supposedly deep ideological divisions within the Republican Party, the vote on the CPC's budget can serve as a lens into similar kinds of splits in the Democratic Party in the House.

At a meeting on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, supporters and allies of the Progressive Caucus said they were hoping the budget would receive more than 100 votes-a figure that would mean that more than half of the Democratic caucus supported the budget. The CPC's budget ultimately fell short of that target, losing by a vote of 84-327. In 2012, by contrast, it was rejected 78-346. Among Democrats this year, it was rejected 84-102, good for a six-vote improvement from last year's Budget for All.  

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CPC Executive Director Brad Bauman was hoping the budget could do even better, but said that he was "happy that we are moving right direction as far as building more and more support for these baseline progressive ideals."

The CPC has advanced similar budget proposals over the last three years. This year's budget, like those previous efforts, stood in contrast to other congressional budgets that included cuts to social spending and other "entitlement programs" while maintaining steady growth in military spending. The Back to Work budget, among other things, called for raising taxes on the highest income bracket from 45 to 49 percent, taxing capital gains in the same way as ordinary income, enacting a financial transactions tax, returning Pentagon spending to 2006 levels, and implementing a carbon tax. 

As CPC members took to the House floor in defense of the budget, many criticized the Republican Party's insistence on deficit reduction above all else and stressed the need to address the jobs crisis. The CPC's budget was estimated to create 6.9 million jobs, according to an analysis from the Economic Policy Institute.

"The number one issue before our country is not the deficit. It's getting the economy going and creating jobs," said Mark Pocan (D-Wis.). "Instead of balancing the budget on the backs of the middle class and the neediest, the Back to Work budget has the back of America's middle class."

This time around, the CPC's budget seemed to avoid a media blackout and actually penetrated the liberal mainstream fairly successfully-problems that have plagued it in the past.

One of the few times the budget received any coverage in the mainstream press in 2011 was the red-baiting masterpiece from the Washington Post's Dana Milbank. He wrote:

  [The CPC budget] gives a sense of how things would be if liberals ran the world: no cuts in Social Security benefits, government-negotiated Medicare drug prices, and increased income and Social Security taxes for the wealthy. Corporations and investors would be hit with a variety of new fees and taxes. And the military would face a shock-and-awe accounting: a 22 percent cut in Army soldiers, 30 percent for the Marines, 20 percent for the Navy and 15 percent for the Air Force. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would end, and weapons programs would go begging. . Their oft-repeated slogan, "The People's Budget," conveyed an unhelpful association with "the people's republic" and other socialist undertakings.
This year, though, the Back to Work budget was featured prominently on Bill Maher's show and praised by unexpected supporters like Ezra Klein and Matt Yglesias. And in what can only be taken as a positive sign of the budget's growing visibility, it was even the target of a rant by David Brooks, who in his New York Times column was scornful of progressives "hermetically sealed in the house of government" who "seem to believe that government is . the source of growth, job creation and prosperity."

Fortunately for Brooks, Wednesday's vote showed that most Democrats in Congress have yet to adopt such progressive beliefs.

A list of those Democrats who voted against the CPC budget, which included House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), can be found here.

While it did earn the support of more centrist Democrats, the Black Caucus' budget fared only slightly better, losing 105-305. The Senate Democratic budget lost 154-261.

ABOUT THIS AUTHOR
Cole Stangler was a summer 2011 In These Times editorial intern.

 

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  Matthew Carmody . 6 days ago 
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  Only 84?? The ones who didn't vote against this should be subject to primaries and removed. They are the enemy as much as any GOP hard-liner.

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  Bill_Perdue . 7 days ago 
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  Pathetic. 

  The idea that a few fake-progressive Democrats can stop austerity measures is preposterous. The worst austerity measures so far have come from Obama in the form of union busting and not one these people lifted a finger to stop them, not one of them walked a picket line. Not one of them proposed impeaching Obama for his attacks on unions. 

  Obama and Emanuel tried to bust the Chicago Teachers union. Obama appoints another union busters as his chief of staff: In these Times 01 29 12 " Obama's Union-Busting New Chief of Staff? Jacob Lew Helped Destroy Grad Students' Union at NYU When Obama's new Chief of Staff was NYU executive vice resident, school ceased recognizing the grad students union" http://www.alternet.org/story/...

  Obama attacks airline and rail workers: LABORnotes 02 15 12"Two years after President Obama and Democrats abandoned labor's much-anticipated Employee Free Choice Act, they have refused to block Republicans intent on making life miserable for airline and rail workers. A bill reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration, voted up 75-20 in the Senate, changes federal labor law to make organizing more difficult for railroad and airline unions. New rules will make it easier to decertify unions and harder to win elections when employers merge."
  http://labornotes.org/2012/02/...

  Obama attacks the UAW HuffPo 09 03 2010 "The White House is forcefully pushing back on former (Obama) car czar Steve Rattner's upcoming book about his time in Washington, specifically the allegation that Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel once blurted "Fuck the UAW" when told that tens of thousands of autoworkers' jobs were at stake in the restructuring of the auto industry." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

  Obama attacks federal workers and postal workersLABORNotes 03 06 2012 "During the Obama administration, and especially during its first two years when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress, the alliance between unions and their political patrons began to wither. The Employee Free Choice Act, the law that would have eased union organizing drives, was shelved. When the administration bailed out the auto companies, it dictated wage cuts, plant closings, and tens of thousands of layoffs, and stripped workers' right to strike. The health care bill attacked union-negotiated plans. A green-job transformation for the economy stalled. Then Obama announced in December 2010 that salaries for federal workers, already low compared to those of private-sector workers with similar education and longevity, would be frozen for years into the future http://labornotes.org/blogs/20...

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  clarenceswinney . 2 days ago 
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  INTERNET HEADLINES I DETEST/LIKE
  House Republicans Unanimously vote down minimum wage
  Sherrod Brown goes after Big Banks
  America Third Least Taxed in OECD nations
  210 new members on Forbes Billionaire list
  Housing Starts Start up
  16 Giant Corporations that have basically stopping paying taxes
  Paul Ryan's Budget will not balance the budget in ten years
  Paul Ryan Budget has $1.4T in hidden cuts
  What happened to worker wages?
  Economists disagree with Paul Ryan claim "Debt is crushing our economy"
  Beware the new Corporate Tax Cut Scam:LIFT is a Big Lie
  House Democrats unanimously oppose extreme Republican budget
  As the provisions of the Affordable Care Act becomes into effect over the next year we must continue to make sure it works for everyone
  The Democratic Budget alternative has the right priorities for America
  The Obama Make It In America Program will enable more of our businesses
  to afford investments in America 
  Democrats have led the fight to restore fiscal responsibility after President Bush and the Republicans left behind deep deficits. The Republican record of Fiscal Irresponsibility
  turned surpluses into massive deficits by borrowing trillions to finance two wars, Huge tax cuts for the wealthy, and major increases in spending.
  The President has proposed to let the high-income tax cuts expire and uses the $1Trillion over ten years to reduce deficits and debt and put the nation on a sustainable fiscal course that includes $2.50 of spending cuts for every $1 of revenue
  How the Billionaires Class is Destroying Democracy
  Lords Of Disorder: How the Big Banks are designed t6 prey off Economic Misery
  Obama's Shakedown Of Medicare
  The Economic Challenge Ahead: More Jobs and Growth,, not deficit reduction

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  Kirk Mailloux . 4 days ago 
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  If you mean Roll Call 89 for this year, it says 82 democrats voted no not 84. 115 house democrats voted yes. 



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  Dh Fabian . 6 days ago 
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  In America, austerity starts at the bottom, taking from those who have the least, protecting those who have the most. Obviously, Clinton already began imposing the austerity agenda back in 1996 by wiping out poverty relief.
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