Corrupt DC Democratic Establishment Crumbling?

The entire corrupt Democratic establishment and its media lackeys went full bore against Bernie in Michigan. The final Fox poll of Michigan Democrats, released Monday, showed Hillary ahead 61-34%. MSNBC repeated Hillary's well-rehearsed ugly debate smear of Bernie regarding the auto bailout for two solid days. I thought Chris Matthews had a tape of it implanted in his parched, ancient brain. But in the end Bernie beat her 50% to 48% and it looks like he'll walk away with 65 delegates to her 58. His win will only make the corrupt Democratic establishment dig its heels in even deeper and harder. For them, it isn't about values or principles; it's about their careerist business model (power and corruption). Right after Bernie was declared the winner, Working Families Party National Director Dan Cantor issued a press release that said, "The Beltway elite may never have really understood why job-killing trade deals are such a big deal. But the people of Michigan surely do, and Bernie Sanders does too. The political revolution is only getting started. This is a movement that has baffled the political establishment from day one, and it's sure to surprise them a few more times in the months to come." By tomorrow we can all expect Hillary to solemnly swear that when she was out knocking on doors for Nixon and Goldwater, she was handing out anti-trade agreement pamphlets.

Yesterday, The Hill asked the question, Could Herr Trumpf nomination put House up for grabs? Short answer: no, not with this DCCC. No matter how bad it gets for the Republicans, the Democrats are incapable of winning. Pelosi's DCCC is corrupt and incompetent. The only thing they know how to do is lose. And lose. And lose. And lose.

The Republicans are up by 30 seats and the DSCC has recruited viable candidates in enough districts to win the House back and MOST-- the majority-- of the candidates they have recruited are unelectable losers chosen because they are wealthy enough to self-fund and because they are conservative. The DCCC started losing when they started a systemic policy of sabotaging progressives and working class Democrats. As the GOP moved further and further right, away from conservatism and into a fully reactionary stance, the DC Democratic establishment followed them further right-- into the conservatism the GOP has pretty much abandoned.

So far the DCCC is backing just two dozen candidates, including several with viable primaries, supporting, for example Val Demings in the Orlando area, Bill Golderer in Bucks County, Pennsylvania and Monica Vernon (a Republican disguised as a Democrat) in northeast Iowa running against more electable candidates (Bob Poe and Geraldine Thompson in Florida, Mary Ellen Balchunis in Pennsylvania and Pat Murphy in Iowa).

Conservatives like Wall Streeter Josh Gottheimer, 2014-defeated Texas Blue Dog Pete Gallego and Michigan drunkard Lon Johnson are exactly the wrong kinds of candidates to recruit and support if the DCCC wanted to rebuild a vibrant Democrat Party in Congress. But the DCCC doesn't. The DCCC wants tools like Demings and Johnson, who will do what they're told by party leaders and they want corrupt individuals who will be happy to play the money game that makes American politics go round and round. Instead the DCCC is building up a New Dem/Blue Dog power nexus in Congress. In district after district around the country they are undermining Democrats and trying to push their own horrible candidates.

What would a progressive-run Democratic House be able to accomplish if we were able to rid Congress of the corrupt bosses like Schumer, Hoyer, Wasserman Schultz, et al? Look no further than the budget the Congressional Progressive Caucus just proposed. Conservative Establishment Democrats from the Hillary Clinton wing of the party will join with the GOP to defeat it but if you want to see what electing candidates like the ones Blue America has endorsed, this is the place to look. Richard Kirsch from the Roosevelt Institute did a good summary today of how all those big progressive ideas would work if there were enough progressives in Congress to pass the People's Budget, which would make "major investments in creating good jobs, educating our children, stopping the disruption of our climate, changing the priorities in Pentagon spending, and restoring our democracy. It would pay for these and other public goods by turning our upside-down tax system right side up. In doing so, it would actually cut the federal budget deficit..

A core premise of the People’s Budget is that every American who wants to work should have a good job that allows them to care for and support their family. The budget aims to reach full employment and makes a $1 trillion investment in infrastructure in addition to financing for clean and renewable energy. It would also make essential investments in families, like universal pre-K, funding for every child eligible for Head Start, and building more affordable housing.

In addition to boosting wages through full employment, the People’s Budget calls for raising the minimum wage and the overtime threshold so companies can no longer avoid paying overtime to millions of workers. It would help working people care for loved ones and for themselves by guaranteeing paid sick days and by assisting states that establish insurance funds for paid family leave. And it would repeal the federal ban on Medicaid paying for abortions so that mothers who rely on that program for their health care can decide whether it’s the right time for them to have a child.

...Mindful that so much of our spending is driven by lobbyists and campaign cash, the People’s Budget would fund a small-donor matching system so candidates for Congress could compete for office without taking big money.

All that and more adds up to spending $3.4 trillion more over the next 10 years than we would under current law. Sound like a lot? Not when compared to how much revenue the People’s Budget would generate by rejecting the idea that raising taxes is unpopular. In fact, raising taxes on the wealthy and closing big corporate loopholes is hugely popular with everyone outside of the super-rich and corporate lobbyists.

By asking the wealthy and big corporations to stop shirking their responsibility to support the working families that create wealth and the public structures that enable businesses to operate, the People’s Budget would raise $8.8 trillion more than the budget that’s in place now. How? Corporations would not be able to dodge taxes by shipping their profits overseas. Too-big-to-fail banks would be taxed. A tiny tax on Wall Street trades would discourage speculation while raising $900 billion over 10 years. Corporations would no longer be able to write off multimillion-dollar CEO compensation.

The People’s Budget takes aim at climate change, too. Oil and gas companies would stop getting tax breaks for pulling more of their planet-destroying products out of the ground. A new tax on oil would finance modernizing our transportation system. More broadly, a tax on all carbon-- with most of the proceeds going to investments in renewable energy-- would power a 26 percent reduction in climate-destroying pollution. At the same time, families with low-incomes would be protected from the hike in oil and gas prices from taxing carbon.

The budget also asks those who make more to pay more. returning the income tax rate for the 2 percent of people making more than $250,000 a year to what it was under President Clinton. The budget would also lower the estate tax exemption to $2.5 million for an individual; while not exactly a daring proposal, this would still raise $231 billion.

A public option would, in effect, quickly turn Obamacare into Medicare-For-All and negotiated prices for drugs may upset Big Pharma and their lobbyists but it will bring the costs of health care down significantly for all Americans.

Last year when the Progressive Caucus' budget was defeated in the House, many of today's worst Senate candidates, the establishment and Wall Street shills Schumer is pushing, voted with the Republicans against it-- like Patrick Murphy (FL), Tammy Duckworth (IL), Chris Van Hollen (MD) and Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ). Voting matters-- and so does supporting candidates who are willing to stand and fight.