Hold onto your hat (or makeup, as the case may be). There is yet another deficit “plan.” You would think there were quite enough Dems working to sell out their own constituents and the rest of America (except for the wealthy). You would be wrong. Enter Claire McCaskill to join the Judas Squad (which is comprised of the Gang of Six and the Conrad, Manchin, Pryor Trio of Triangulation). For her own effort, McCaskill joins none other than Republican Bob Corker in a plan to force a balloon payment on the deficit in 2022. This is a dirty trick only a Republican could love.
There are no tax increases for her rich friends and corporations. But there are still plenty of tax cuts for the rich, including gifts via the tax code. But there is a stealth achievement.
According to Robert Reich, she decimates Medicare with a whopping $800 billion in cuts in one year. There is no where else Judas Squad members could/would take that money. They don’t have the spine to significantly cut defense. Who needs enemies when our own side does such a great job of eviscerating us? Robert Reich calls her plan “lipstick” on the Republican plan. And it is little-to-nothing better. However, it is sneakier.
With all the disingenuousness floating around the Blue Dog Coalition and other supposed business friendly Dems (who are more accurately shoddy make-up artists perpetrating a con-servative takeover of America’s budget), what’s a progressive Democrat to do?
–One thing not to do is to fund Claire McCaskill.
–A second is to flood her with letters and calls.
–Ditto the White House. Write them today! Democrats act as if “the only solution” is to trot out one miserable excuse for a budget after another.
–Tell Harry Reid “hell, no.”
–A final recommendation for for voters is that we demand more transparency in the naming of such commissions. When the consequences are so grave, there should be an announcement of the President’s nominees and then a chance for the public to weigh in. The trouble is that the names the President submitted appeared balanced on the surface. You had to know what the previous work and statements of the various Dems were to realize that Democrats got hosed.
It’s clear that there is an attempt by members of Congress to manipulate the public into accepting the Deficit Commission Plan, which isn’t officially a plan because it never passed out of the Commission. Now there is a new pitiful excuse for a proposal.
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