The Back To Work Budget Didn't Pass

No one thought it would pass. It's far too good-- too sensible, too weighted towards the non-rich-- for any Republican to consider voting for it. It failed today 84-327 and, sure enough, not a single Republican voted for it. But, then again, neither did most Democrats. More than a few non-Progressive Caucus Members voted for it-- like Stephen Lynch who desperately wants Massachusetts Democratic primary voters to think he's a progressive-- but I was horrified and disappointed by the CPC members who didn't vote for it, as well as by other progressives who voted NO.

Last week, writing at Huffington Post, R.J. Eskow, explained why the CPC budget vote is the most important budget battle in the country.

We won't have a functioning democracy until more of our representatives stand up for the principles in this document. That's why every Representative's vote for this budget matters. It's why each member of the House, and each of us, needs to stand up and be counted.

The CPC budget is smart, effective, and practical, creating up to seven million jobs while reducing the Federal deficit by $4.4 trillion. And yet it's being marginalized by the press and dismissed by leaders of the CPC's own Democratic Party.  Its provisions are enormously popular with voters across the political spectrum. And yet in Washington's insular world of self-fulfilling prophecies we're told that this budget is unimportant because "it will never pass."

...The CPC budget begins by recognizing what most sensible economists understand: A lingering recessionary economy like ours needs an up-front jolt of public investment. (The first one wasn't big enough.) It invests $2.1 trillion in public investment and jobs growth, with $700 billion in its first twelve months.

That sounds like a lot until we compare it to the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan which, as Bill Moyers notes, may be as much as $4.4 trillion (plus another trillion in interest). Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz estimates that it will take another $3 trillion just to cover the overall cost of medical care for wounded soldiers.

Next to that, $2.1 trillion to restore our damaged economy is a bargain. The budget would create an estimated 6.9 million jobs, cut wasteful Pentagon spending, reduce Medicare costs by ending corporate giveaways, modestly increase tax levels for high- and ultra-high-income Americans, and assess Wall Street for its excessive risk-tasking behavior.

It reduces the deficit in part because its up-front expenditures are an investment, not a military waste of money (or, far more tragically, of lives).

The only high-ranking House Democrats who voted for it were Jim Clyburn (SC), the Assistant Majority Leader and Xavier Becerra (CA), the Caucus Chairman. The rest of the leadership team all voted with the Republicans: Pelosi, Hoyer, Crowley, Israel... Wasserman-Schultz hid in the ladies room during the vote.

I'm not going to bother to mention all the Blue Dogs and New Dems who crossed the aisle and voted with the Republicans against the only sensible budget that's been proposed this year. But I do want to point out a list of Congressional Progressive Caucus members who voted against the budget; just shocking:

• Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR)
• David Cicilline (D-RI)- a Progressive Caucus vice chairman
• Pete DeFazio (D-OR)
• Lois Frankel (D-FL)
• Marcy Kaptur (D-OH)
• Joe Kennedy III (D-MA)
• Ann Kuster (D-NH)
• Jared Polis (D-CO)
• Bennie Thompson (D-MS)

Being pro-Choice or pro-gay marriage or against racism doesn't automatically make someone a progressive. If you don't care about economic justice issues... you're something else. Which reminds me... Gary Peters is probably going to run for the open Michigan Senate seat; Bruce Braley is definitely running for the open Iowa Senate seat; Allyson Schwartz is definitely running for governor of Pennsylvania; and my own congressman, Adam Schiff, found himself in a new super-progressive district so he dumped his membership in the right-wing Blue Dogs but voted with them today again anyway. These people expect progressives to support them? All 4 crossed the aisle and voted with Republicans against the Back To Work Budget today. I didn't embed this clip to show you that Kyrsten Sinema is a disappointing shill. That's just a coincidence. I wanted you to hear Jerry Nadler, Chris Hayes, Sam Seder and Heidi Moore.