Senate Dems Preparing Bill To Slash Spending

By Big Tent Democrat, Section Other Politics
Posted on Fri Feb 25, 2011 at 08:40:36 AM EST
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The capitulation begins:

With a political standoff over spending threatening to trigger a federal shutdown next week, Senate Democrats began drafting a plan Thursday to slice billions of dollars from domestic agency budgets over the next seven months, yielding to Republican demands to reduce the size of government this year.

In December, President Obama led the capitulation on tax policy. Now Senate Dems lead the capitulation on spending. They of course regret all the pain they will be inflicting and the severe damage they will be causing to the economy. Grover Norquist and the Republicans have no regrets of course. But does that really matter? The results are the same.

Speaking for me only

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Senate Dems Preparing Bill To Slash Spending | 23 comments (23 topical)

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As it always (5.00 / 3) (#1)
by Warren Terrer on Fri Feb 25, 2011 at 08:52:33 AM EST

was, is, and shall ever be. Dems cave when Daddy GOP gets stern with them.

I don't EVER want to see a (5.00 / 6) (#2)
by jeffinalabama on Fri Feb 25, 2011 at 08:55:26 AM EST

'mediator in chief' again. Or a 'majority mediator.'

It's time for a new party, or at least to get rid of these creatures who capitulate before fighting.

: Nooooo kidding (none / 0) (#4)
by lilburro on Fri Feb 25, 2011 at 09:38:36 AM EST

I always thought the "limits of the politically possible" argument on the part of ardent Obama defenders didn't really hold up. And the way the budget debate is being conducted is just shameful. Obama will probably score more political points than the Republicans, but at what cost to our economy? There's no additional stimulus plan on the table, cuts ARE going to happen. Was it really IMPOSSIBLE to forward a cohesive vision on how to fix the economy? Instead the Obama administration seems intent on running a PR hustle on us about how things are better. Anyone see Austan Goolsbee on the Daily Show last night? It's just kind of nauseating.

I think Anne is right about this (5.00 / 1) (#3)
by Militarytracy on Fri Feb 25, 2011 at 08:59:19 AM EST

being the economic remedies that Goldman Sachs wants. Until Goldman Sachs is kicked out of the White House, every month is going to be a month of doing something goosingly different to attempt to shore the things up that Goldman Sachs thinks are important. S&P switched our credit rating from AAA to unsolicited. Goldman Sachs wants its AAA rating back since they do just about officially rule the whole financial world and they absolutely do own the United States. Otherwise Goldman might have to go take over a different country with a AAA rating instead, moving is always stressful.

: Yes, because boxes are so expensive. (none / 0) (#5)
by observed on Fri Feb 25, 2011 at 09:42:25 AM EST

Making it more and more clear (5.00 / 3) (#6)
by sj on Fri Feb 25, 2011 at 09:47:39 AM EST

that I don't have a political "home". Or even a base of operations.

I hate these people. And it takes too darn much energy to put a good hate on. But I hate these people.

Carrying the GOP's Water (5.00 / 1) (#7)
by cal1942 on Fri Feb 25, 2011 at 10:02:53 AM EST

Terrific. Cut the budget and keep the economy in the tank and pave the way for Republicans to take over everything.

The public will blame the party in the White House.

Why should the GOP bother to campaign with Democrats willing to slash their own and the nation's wrists.

The Obama led Democrats have managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

We shouldn't be surprised. Obama's weakness aside Democrats are supplementing the diminished supply of union money with corporate money.

Obama turned it all into an easy rout for Republicans.

Yes, and where is President Obama (5.00 / 1) (#8)
by KeysDan on Fri Feb 25, 2011 at 10:48:37 AM EST

on the great middle class economic issue of busting Unions?


He's searching for (5.00 / 7) (#10)
by Zorba on Fri Feb 25, 2011 at 11:11:13 AM EST

his comfortable pair of shoes. Candidate Obama in 2007:

And understand this: If American workers are being denied their right to organize and collectively bargain when I'm in the White House, I'll put on a put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself. I'll walk on that picket line with you as president of the United States.

Maybe Bo buried his comfy shoes in the Rose Garden and it will take awhile to find them.


Where is Obama? (5.00 / 1) (#15)
by lentinel on Fri Feb 25, 2011 at 11:47:37 AM EST

On the metaphorical and literal golf course.


Well, in fairness, the president (none / 0) (#16)
by KeysDan on Fri Feb 25, 2011 at 12:44:35 PM EST

has been pretty busy calling for the removal of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, organizing "contra-type" support for the protestors, and arranging for Gaddafi's re-settlement in the south of France with his voluptuous Ukranian nurse.


Obama (5.00 / 1) (#17)
by lentinel on Fri Feb 25, 2011 at 01:07:59 PM EST

has a voluptuous Ukrainian nurse?


: My understanding of the Wikileaks scoop, is (5.00 / 1) (#18)
by KeysDan on Fri Feb 25, 2011 at 01:22:16 PM EST

that the voluptuous blonde, Galyna Kolotnytska, is the constant companion of the Colonel, but if you are correct that may explain (a) the Administration's reaction to Julian Assange and (b) the president's absence from the Wisconsin picket lines.

C'mon Keys (none / 0) (#19)
by cal1942 on Fri Feb 25, 2011 at 03:01:00 PM EST

that would be taking a stand, drawing a line in the sand, etc.

It wouldn't be collegial.


Dems are not capitulating (5.00 / 3) (#9)
by The Addams Family on Fri Feb 25, 2011 at 10:53:14 AM EST

they are using the GOP for cover

Is anyone really surprised by this? (5.00 / 3) (#11)
by Anne on Fri Feb 25, 2011 at 11:40:53 AM EST

And can we, once and for all, please admit that Obama's establishment of the Deficit Commission was not a head fake, 11-dimensional chess move, a sop to the conservatives, or whatever other excuse that's been offered as to why it didn't mean anything, when it was clearly a blueprint?

We're engaged in a form of Dart Board Governance now, wherein policies are established based almost solely on political considerations that are driven by Obama's essential conservative nature that is both judgmental and authoritarian, and by his pathological belief that he can heal old psychological wounds by trying to win over those who aren't interested in any kind of alliance with him - but who are, nonetheless, happy to use that need to achieve the policy goals they want.

I feel like I am watching a train wreck from the position of being tied to the tracks on which it is happening, and I don't see anyone coming to the fore to stop it. Am I going to be in significantly better shape if the Democratic train is going 5 mph slower when it crashes over me than the one the Republicans are driving?

When the economy goes in the toilet, what on earth will Democrats have to run on? That they didn't give the GOP everything it wanted, so it could have been a lot worse? Really? They think there are votes in that argument?

"Please sir, may I have another?" Hell of a campaign slogan that works for either party - which is part of the larger problem: that what used to be core Democratic beliefs and goals and policies have been bargained away in service to the political fortunes of people who never have to suffer the consequences of their decisions. And we are left with two versions of the GOP: one is socially conservative and one is socially moderate - both are fiscally/economically out of their minds.

If there was a more toxic combination of greed, indifference to suffering, general lack of knowledge of economic/mometary theory, corporate subservience and general psychodrama, I'm hard-pressed to find an example; the conditions that led up to the French Revolution, perhaps?

The mantra is (5.00 / 3) (#14)
by lentinel on Fri Feb 25, 2011 at 11:46:53 AM EST

already starting...

Obama had to do this, but once he's re-elected he'll become the person, populist, progressive and rock star that he was purported to be in 2008.

Yeah, right.


Speaking of the French Revolution (5.00 / 1) (#20)
by cal1942 on Fri Feb 25, 2011 at 03:25:25 PM EST

Michigan's new GOP governor submitted a proposal to:

Eliminate business taxes - yes zero.

Cut back a homestead property tax credit that benefited homeowners and renters with modest and low incomes.

Cut back a city income tax credit that benefited moderate and low income people.

Eliminate the state's Earned Income Credit for working poor

Eliminate tax credit for contributions to food pantrys and homeless shelters.

Cut or eliminate credits for contributions to universities.

Cut state aid to K-12 education

Cut state university funding

Reward elimination of defined benefit pensions and staff reductions at state universities.

Levy state income taxes on all pensions.

Just a sample of the "elimination of loopholes for special interests" as he called them.

The modest credits in the tax code that were cut or eliminated makes the flat rate state income tax even more regressive.

The state income tax was lowered by one tenth of one point. Well-to-do and wealthy tax payers who never qualified for the credits will see their state income taxes decrease ever so slightly because of the reduction of the tax rate. Everyone else's taxes (modest to low income) will increase.

SOUND FAMILIAR


: That's just despicable. (none / 0) (#22)
by Anne on Fri Feb 25, 2011 at 05:34:07 PM EST

Seriously, I don't know how else to react or respond to such callous indifference to those at the lower end of the income spectrum. Or to things like education - but I guess it's all part of the effort to completely privatize schools.
I guess the pain is going to come from all sides.

Don't worry Anne (none / 0) (#12)
by jbindc on Fri Feb 25, 2011 at 11:42:27 AM EST

If the Republicans can't get their stuff together, we'll have 4 more years of this after 2012!


Every time (5.00 / 4) (#13)
by lentinel on Fri Feb 25, 2011 at 11:44:03 AM EST

I read about these proposed cuts to the services that benefit people I get particularly angry at the elephant in the room - the wars.

They cost us two and a half billion dollars a week.

No one talks about them.

Our soldiers are committing suicide.

It is not a topic for conversation.

Obama is even worse than Bush.
He has everyone hypnotized - including himself.

if the rolls were reversed... (none / 0) (#21)
by pluege2 on Fri Feb 25, 2011 at 05:25:17 PM EST

republicans would be so in everyone's face how they're resiting all spending cuts that hurt jobs and people.

how did the good guys end up with such a sorry bunch of saps as obama and the Senate dems? Something is really wrong that the left can't run on principle.

Yep. (none / 0) (#23)
by Lora on Sun Feb 27, 2011 at 06:11:19 PM EST

"The results are the same."

Dems and Repubs are bipartisan here. Whoopdee-do.