Only 32 Democrats Had The Guts To Vote No On The Ryan-Murray Budget

What do you get if you cross Paul Ryan and Patty Murray?

This is a budget that is profoundly against the interests of working families. It passed 332-94. 62 crazy right-wing fanatics voted against it because it wasn't harsh enough. These are the 32 Democrats who just said no:

• Karen Bass (D-CA)
• Judy Chu (D-CA)
• David Cicilline (D-RI)
• Yvette Clarke (D-NY)
• John Conyers (D-MI)
• Pete DeFazio (D-OR)
• Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)
• Keith Ellison (D-MN)
• Lois Frankel (D-FL)
• Marsha Fudge (D-OH)
• Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
• Colleen Hanabusa (New Dem-HI)
• Rush Holt (D-NJ)
• Steny Hoyer (D-MD)
• Barbara Lee (D-CA)
• Sander Levin (D-MI)
• Mike McIntyre (New Dem-NC)
• Gloria Negrete McLeod (D-CA)
• Frank Pallone (D-NJ)
• Chellie Pingree (D-ME)
• Mark Pocan (D-WI)
• Cedric Richmond (D-LA)
• Linda Sanchez (D-CA)
• Loretta Sanchez (New Dem-CA)
• Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)
• Kurt Schrader (New Dem-OR)
• Louise Slaughter (D-NY)
• Bennie Thompson (D-MS)
• Nydia Velázquez (D-NY)
• Pete Visclosky (D-IN)
• Maxine Waters (D-CA)
• Mel Watt (D-NC)

A lot of good Democrats voted "wrong" on this, albeit for good reasons. Here's Donna Edwards (D-MD) apologizing for her vote:

“This is not the bill I would have written. If I had written this bill, some federal employees would not be forced to pay more for their retirement and 1.3 million Americans, including over 22,900 Marylanders, would not be losing their unemployment insurance.

“This agreement is the product of compromise, and is by definition imperfect. Yet, I support this agreement because it preserves the COLA increase for federal workers and rejects the Ryan Budget’s draconian proposal to force those same workers to pay 5.5 percent ($140 billion) more for their retirement. It also uses a mix of spending cuts and revenue to replace sequestration, which has devastated our region’s economy.

“It is now time to focus on the priorities of the American people: investing in our infrastructure to create jobs, raising the minimum wage, passing comprehensive immigration reform, and promoting economic policies that help America’s women and families.”

And here's the voice of the deranged far right. This is why the crackpots like Bachmann, Stockman, Pompeo, Scalise, Huelskamp, Steve King, Gohmert, Broun, Gingrey, McClintock, Coffman, Garrett, Daines, Cotton and Bentivolio voted against the budget. And listen to the rap from this end of the party fringe on Chris Christie: 




UPDATE: Grijalva Explains His Vote Against The Ryan-Murray Deal

Grijalva and other members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus he chairs were stunned that the budget proposal failed to address most of the nation’s pressing economic issues. “The best way to help the American people is to create jobs and get more families back into this economy, and this deal doesn’t do that,” Grijalva said. “I don’t see enough here that helps the people I represent. This package doesn’t help people looking for jobs, it doesn’t help people wondering what they’re supposed to do when their unemployment insurance is cut off, and it doesn’t create any new opportunities for working Americans. It used the flawed Budget Control Act as its starting point, and that meant the finished product wasn’t strong enough to earn my support.”

The sequester portion of the Budget Control Act passed in 2011 included a reduction in payment rates to Medicare health care providers that would have expired in 2021. Last night’s budget deal extends those cuts to fiscal years 2022 and 2023. It also postpones, but does not eliminate, certain scheduled cuts to future budget years’ federal education and job creation funding. Other cuts will go forward on schedule.

In addition to ignoring the impending end of unemployment insurance benefits for approximately 1.3 million Americans later this month, the deal falls well short of necessarily funding levels for major programs that help Southern Arizonans, Grijalva pointed out. The graph (above, on the right) shows how far below historical funding levels this deal falls given its overall $1.012 trillion spending level for 2014-- more than half of which ($520.5 billion) will be spent on the military.

“We started cutting too deeply years ago, and we’ve just been cutting more ever since,” Grijalva said. “It’s as though the only job Congress is here to do is make things tougher for people. If we want an economy that really creates growth and opportunity, all we have to do is look at what we’ve gotten from austerity economics to see we’re not getting results.”

Grijalva agreed with the negotiators’ decision not to cut Medicaid or Social Security benefits at this point and said those programs “should be expanded rather than granted a last-second reprieve.” However, he said, “doing less damage than you’re threatening to do isn’t the same thing as passing a good law. When Congress comes back in January, expanding job opportunities and helping working people succeed in this economy is going to stay my top priority, and I hope my colleagues say the same. We can’t just check this box and say we’ve done our bit for working families. Congress needs to continue a longer and very necessary conversation about economic inequality and job opportunity in this country, and I look forward to doing that as early as possible next year.”