Budget Betrayal

Not a single member of Kentucky's U.S. House delegation voted against the middle-class-economy-destroying budget "compromise" shortly after midnight Saturday. All four republicans voted for a budget that betrayed repug promises of cuts that would kill the social safety net, and both Democrats voted for a budget that strips the middle-class naked and homeless in order to enrich the obscenely wealthy.

Down With Tyranny:

It passed 40 minutes late, 348-70. 208 Republicans plus 140 Democrats probably guaranteeing a double-dip recession. For 28 radical right nihilists-- your Bachmanns, Gohmerts, Brouns, Chaffetzes... Joe "You Lie" Wilson, that crowd-- the cutbacks weren't severe enough; they voted NO. 42 Democrats also voted NO. Like Anthony Weiner (D-NY).

And, as Digby just pointed out this morning, the process left the Republicans stronger and united, not downhearted and in disarray, the way the Democrats are. "The Tea Party," she writes, "is just another word for 'conservative Republican.' Boehner used them, they didn't use him. A good leader knows how to manage expectations and Boehner turns out to be very good at it. He came in with a low number, then 'capitulated' to his base and raised it over and over again. He couldn't quite come through on getting rid of funding for cervical cancer screening and birth control (Tea Party priorities, apparently) but promised to bring it up again and again in the endless budget battles to come. What's not to like? And this is enough to make them giddy-- and is, after all, the whole point: The agreement would cut about $38 billion from the 2010 budget baseline and $78.5 billion from President Obama's 2011 budget proposal."

The Democrats who voted against the kabuki-compromise, by and large, come from working class districts and represent working class sensibilities. Although trusted figures, like Donna Edwards (who represents a district with a higher proportion of government employees than any in the country) and Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Raúl Grijalva, voted to avert a shutdown, the 42 Democrats who voted against Obama felt they could not go along with the wrenching cuts and that giving in to Republican hostage-taking would just embolden them in the future in their battles to dismantle Social Security and Medicare. Tammy Baldwin represents Madison, Wisconsin, where the American spirit happens to be highest of anywhere in the country fright now. She voted NO.