Fiscal Suicide: Those Damn Democrats
I know the buzz in the media is that those pesky Republicans are being all obstructionist. Like, how could we oppose a $1 TRILLION crap sandwich when Barack Obama invited us over for drinks? Dear Leader rules, the GOP drools. The media has a habit of forgetting the eleven house Democrats who crossed the isle to reject the same crap sandwich.
Or the FORTY-SEVEN house Democrats who wrote President Pelosi a letter recently, telling her if they didn’t cut the spending they were walking away from the bill altogether.
Or Rep. Heath Schuler, DEMOCRAT from North Carolina, who lamented the lack of real bi-partisanship (as opposed to the MSNBC style faux-bi-partisanship) and concluded, “I truly feel that’s where maybe House leadership and Senate leadership have really failed.”
All that being said, I’m sure we can add freshman congressman Walt Minnick, DEMOCRAT from Idaho, to the list of dissenting D’s that the media is ignoring. Minnick has a crazy idea to try a smaller stimulus plan first…
Minnick is a member of the Blue Dog caucus of occasionally conservative Democcrats. His START plan is a $170 billion “bare bones” pure stimulus approach that would put $100 billion immediately into the pockets of low- and middle-income Americans, then use the other $70 billion for basic infrastructure projects that create jobs. START requires that all funds not spent by 2010 be returned to the Treasury. START also stops stimulus spending when the nation’s Gross Domestic Product increases in two of three previous quarters, and all START payments are required to be posted on a public website.
Minnick introduced START as an alternative – just in case the legislative process stalls out, says press secretary John Foster. As one of the brave 11 Democrats who voted against Pelosi’s stimulus bill, Minnick explained to folks back home that he opposed the speaker’s version because it was so “Christmas-treed up” with wasteful spending, like $300 million for golf carts.
Here’s what I’m wondering. If moderate and/or conservative D’s were frozen out of drafting the first bill, AND eleven house D’s already voted against the original version of the bill, AND forty-seven house D’s are threatening to walk if spending isn’t cut, AND the conference trio of Charlie Rangel/David Obey/Henry Waxman guarantees that things will be added more than cut…why aren’t we reaching out to the Blue Dogs to cut a deal.
Or, are we…?
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