Dems Furious, See Deal as GOP Win...

[Ben]

Dems Furious, See Deal as GOP Win


by Mike Illis
House Democrats on Monday expressed outrage at the White House for how it handled the debt-ceiling negotiations, claiming the administration caved to the GOP and left them in the dark.
“I don’t think,” said Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) of the debt-ceiling deal. “I cry.” (AP Photo)

The irate lawmakers took exception to the lack of balance between cuts and revenues; they railed against the White House for excluding them from the process; and they accused President Obama of bowing to the demands of Republicans without putting up much of a fight.
“Our negotiators weren’t tough enough,” Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said Monday. “They didn’t do the work.”
House Democrats have been steaming for months after they were largely left out of high-stakes talks to extend the George W. Bush-era tax rates and fund the government this year. Many protest that the administration takes their support for granted, ignoring their policy concerns.
“People have seen this movie before,” Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) told CNN.
In the debt-ceiling debate, for instance, House Democrats insisted on tax-revenue hikes that didn’t materialize and demanded domestic investments that were excluded. The combination, the Democrats charged Monday, saddles the middle class with the burden of reducing the deficit while letting corporations and wealthy Americans off the hook.
Even House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — who was directly engaged in the talks until the last few days — described the final product as a “Satan sandwich with Satan fries on the side.” The remarks were a reference to Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s (D-Mo.) much-reported critique of the package.
Still, Pelosi said she’d hold her nose and support the measure for the sake of preventing a government default.
Pelosi will have to try to heal some of the wounds the deal has inflicted on her caucus. Just last week, House Democrats were flying high. They united against a GOP plan to raise the debt ceiling, forcing Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to delay a high-profile vote.
House Democrats noted they had leverage in the talks, pointing out that Republicans would need their votes to pass any type of deal. Their math was accurate, but their analysis proved faulty.
Vice President Biden addressed the concerns of House Democrats for more than 90 minutes Monday afternoon, but many lawmakers left the meeting angrier than when they entered.
“They didn’t want anything ‘extraneous’ in this package,” Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) said, lambasting Biden’s salesmanship. “Jobs are extraneous, safety and security are extraneous — what’s the package about? It’s all about cutting, cutting, cutting.
“Tax cuts and reductions in spending are not going to create jobs in this country,” DeFazio added. “We need some investment, [and] there isn’t a penny of investment.”
Not only did the agreement slash domestic spending while excluding new tax revenues, many Democrats ranted, but the White House left rank-and-file members in the dark through most of the talks.
“We’re the minority in the House, and they take us for granted. And that’s what they’re going to do,” Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) said Monday. “I don’t think that my concerns and the concerns of the majority of this caucus were taken into account enough with this agreement.”
Engel said most Democrats in the New York delegation had requested a meeting with the White House to discuss potential cuts in graduate medical education.
“We couldn’t get a meeting,” he said.
When the deal was reached Sunday, Engel continued, the White House “didn’t bother” to contact House Democrats.
“We all heard that there was this deal through the media,” he said.
Asked what Democrats got from the deal, Engel responded, “We avoided default.
“But if you had told me that this would be [the] package a month ago,” he added, “I would have asked you what you had been smoking.”
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) described the package as “a Trojan horse with Scylla and Charybdis inside,” and blasted Obama for agreeing to the deal.
“It’s our conscience versus our president,” Cohen said.
Crafted largely by Obama and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the proposal locks in roughly $1 trillion in cuts over the next 10 years. Congressional leaders would then appoint a bipartisan panel to identify roughly $2 trillion in additional deficit reduction over the same span. If it fails, then automatic cuts of the same level would kick in — including steep reductions in military and Medicare spending.
Asked what she thinks of the bill, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) was terse.
“I don’t think,” she said. “I cry.”

[beandip]

They're too goddamned stupid to realize "they won" this round.

The Dums put off the big reset by about 2 years.

God Bless "kick the can"

Hold on...'cause the bernanke is gonna do a back door QEIII.

[Ben]

[Ben]

[onmyknees]

Curious Lot these liberals are. What the fuck are they so furious about? So we're making some minor cuts to the actual growth rate, not the base line budget, and they act like every federal department and agency was ordered to cut thier budget 10% over last year. Only in DC would there ever be such hand wringing about such inconsequential cuts. What's gonna happen when we're forced to make some real cuts. These pinheads will be jumping off the ledge......

[Stavros]

Not all liberals, onymyknees. And, as I said in another post, it is the Republicans who have been damaged most. Some astute commentators will note that if it is 'the left' who are dismayed then Obama is doing the right thing...but someone still has to deliver on jobs before any confidence returns.

[arnie666]

Yes we can tell, ranting about the tea party being terrorists.The media are doing the same,but then the media is Obama TV and also the tea party dares to go against the political establishment in america. The word terrorism is banded about willy nilly far too much by both sides. It belittles the victims of terrorism over the years. And personally this just yet another example of how unsuitable Biden is for the VP role.

Funnily enough the tea party and conservatives regard this deal as a sell out by the GOP,and think Obama is guaranteed another term now as the democrat president who is basically a republican. His name should be Obush. I can see why the libs are mad though,all this talk of 'hope' and 'change' and it meant jack shit.

[trish]

I agree, the Tea Party did not engage in terrorism ( well not unless you count bringing guns to town hall meetings for the purpose of intimidating lawmakers and the citizens who support them, or unless perhaps you count their "targeting" of political opponents and note that one of their opponents did in fact get shot). But no, I agree their recent foray the into region between crime and politics wasn't terrorism__it was extortion.

[hippifried]

I can't believe these assholes bailed out for a month without funding the FAA. 4000 furloughed already. Since the baggers are so hot to be off on vacation without getting anything done, maybe the agency should finish furloughing everybody else & watch the airports close down from coast to coast. We'll see how long it takes to get back in session once their donors are stuck at home with their wives. For those in the west, it might take a few more days by rail or Greyhound.

These guys don't know what they're doing.

[yodajazz]

I can't believe these assholes bailed out for a month without funding the FAA. 4000 furloughed already. Since the baggers are so hot to be off on vacation without getting anything done, maybe the agency should finish furloughing everybody else & watch the airports close down from coast to coast. We'll see how long it takes to get back in session once their donors are stuck at home with their wives. For those in the west, it might take a few more days by rail or Greyhound.

These guys don't know what they're doing.

"Stuck at home with their wives". Why would you wish such a terrible punishment for our legislators? Deep down, I think they mean well. I'm going to the drugstore, and expect to be back in 3-4 hours, so you can answer by then.