It’s almost unbelievable that the Democrats could take their strongest issue, tax-breaks for millionaires and billionaires, and not only fail to use it before they adjourned, but to actually let themselves get hammered for not protecting the middle class tax cuts.
House Democratic leaders barely headed off a revolt Wednesday from 39 moderate Democrats who sided with Republicans and voted against a procedural resolution that would let Congress adjourn before the midterm elections.
GOP leaders framed the measure as a de facto vote on agreeing to leave Washington without voting on whether to extend the Bush-era tax cuts due to expire at the end of the year. The Democrats who split with their party face tough re-election battles and didn’t want to give the GOP a political talking point by going on record that they were ready to leave without taking up the issue.The measure ultimately passed 210-209, allowing Congress to officially leave town after it finishes business likely late Wednesday night. But Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who rarely votes on these routine resolutions, had to step in and break the tie.
I mean, are you fucking kidding me? And don’t blame the progressives for this one. They were literally begging the Blue Dogs to save themselves and allow a vote to extend the tax cuts for the middle class.
Here you have a bunch of Blue Dogs who are afraid to vote for a bill that would preserve tax cuts for 97% of Americans and probably 99% of their constituents. And what do they get instead? They get blasted for being a member of a party that is letting those tax cuts expire. “No, no,” they’ll say, “I voted against adjourning without addressing that.” Yeah, technically you did, but only after you told Pelosi she couldn’t have your vote if she did try to address it. So, in addition to being cowards, you’ll now be parsing liars. Congratulations. You just pissed off your own base, 99% of your constituents, and lost the chance to be a populist hero in the bargain. You so deserve to lose your job and fall behind on your mortgage payments. These people are unimaginable idiots.
And why do Blue Dogs behave this way? Is it because they need the Chamber of Commerce to go easy on them? Is it because they can’t raise enough cash in their own districts to compete with the Chamber of Commerce, so they have to vote like banksters? You’re a Democrat serving in a socially conservative district. If you give up on taking the side of the people against billionaires, what do you have left? Where’s your appeal? If you are representing hordes of poor white Christian folk who are living on welfare, or check-to-check, how are you going to win their votes by siding with the New Jersey-Connecticut investment banker set?
So, you figure you’ll just build up a large enough war chest from out-of-state corporate cash, neuter the Chamber’s wrath by voting with them, maybe pick-up a NRA endorsement along the way, and the people will keep electing you. Well, not this year. The Blue Dogs are going to get decimated. There may not be more than a small handful of them left in the South when this is all over.
And the crazy thing is that any one with eyes could see that they were tying their own noose. Progressives tried to reason with them and they shot themselves in the face anyway.
It’s just beyond words.