Enjoying that suck yet?
Throw veterans under the bus ? Embrace it ! Use a not a done deal second shutdown as cover for a corpadem austerity budget that still leaves the sequester place for the 99% but takes it away for the war profiteers.
Not only that, but the Republicans are already rubbing their hands together with glee about another debt ceiling fight in Feb. Wonder if This President will dust off the chained CPI for that one, inequality speech notwithstanding....
Finally, a search of google news headlines produced this:
Already the Republicans are shifting the blame for the veteran pension cuts to Dems!
'Unacceptable': Lawmakers battle military retiree cuts ahead of key budget vote
Fox News - 7 hours ago
I am not going to link it but no one should be surprised at this.
The budget makes no sense for most of us.....
Democracy Now
Published on Dec 16, 2013
http://www.democracynow.org - A bipartisan budget deal to avert another government shutdown comes before the Senate this week. The vast majority of House members from both parties approved the two-year budget agreement last week in a 332-to-94 vote. It is being hailed as a breakthrough compromise for Democrats and Republicans. The bill eases across-the-board spending cuts, replacing them with new airline fees and cuts to federal pensions. In a concession by Democrats, it does not extend unemployment benefits for 1.3 million people, which are set to expire this month. To discuss the deal, we are joined by David Cay Johnston, an investigative reporter who won a Pulitzer Prize while at The New York Times. He is currently a columnist for Tax Analysts and Al Jazeera, as well as a contributing editor at Newsweek.
Please consider supporting independent media by making a donation to Democracy Now! today, visit http://owl.li/....
Please pick up the phone and let the Senate know.
Even though it looks as though it will pass the Senate, we should make our outrage known.
4:20 PM PT: From the comments, because I am too mad and I can't summarize this folly any better :
It's a classic Democratic Party move (4+ / 0-)
Recommended by:
greenbell, chuckvw, benamery21, divineorder
Do something that in no way bolsters your brand, if not outright undermines it, but assume that you will be profoundly rewarded for doing it as 'grown ups' and 'eat your vegetables' is more important than being seen as championing all the various things you endlessly drone on and on and on about caring about.
Then, be shocked for the millionth time when Republicans are still shockingly viable because what you have done is tell America, in no uncertain terms, that everybody agrees that the poors the olds and the vets and the worker bees all need to be kicked, it's just the degree of how often and how hard to kick them is the debate. The Democratic brand is shit. It's just that the Republican brand is shittier.
And you might get away with that for a while.
Until some scandal happens, or the ACA rollout goes sideways, or Paul Ryan does something that allows his Village worshippers to go back to selling him as Paul Ryan Man of Ideas and Compassion and Vision. Like, say, by getting better than the original Paul Ryan budget out of the Democrats in exchange for Democrats agreeing to go about fucking the unemployed as "a compromise". Suddenly all the gains you get by virtue of 'not being Republicans' because they throw shit like monkeys in the zoo and you don't goes away like vapor. Poof!
Embrace the Suck.
The defining throw-away line of this age in non-Conservative politics.
Because fighting back makes you Teahadi. Or muddles the genius of the 'don't make an argument, just point and say they are crazy and we are not'.
Fred Hiatt giving your a golf clap vs. actually making an argument against Movement Conservatism and in favor of yourself that might be seen as 'divisive' or 'partisan'.
Make no mistake, Democrats are going to go out in 2014 and try to make the argument that they care about the unemployed, even though abandoning them because they were a 'concession' is a lazy out.
You have to have credibility to have credibility.
A lot of the Democratic establishment seems to think that credibility is both immortal and transferable due to legacy actions you have worked dutifully to neglect or undermine.
This entire premise of not making an argument by virtue of letting the Republicans being bad apples making you look worth supporting by default was proven to be folly by the shutdown GOP polling "crash". It was immediately offset by the ACA rollout's problems. Poof! Vanished in a heartbeat.
Then, you blame the voters when you have bad outcomes at the polls. Because, obviously, they 'don't understand politics'.
I am a Loco-Foco. I am from the Elizabeth Warren wing of the Democratic Party.
by LeftHandedMan on Mon Dec 16, 2013 at 04:31:35 PM MST
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4:50 PM PT: From Digby re Fix the Debt promoting the budget --
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/...
Why is Fix the Debt so darned happy?
by digby
Here's the latest my ongoing series documenting the unseemly glee with which Republicans and Democratic centrists are greeting this budget deal:
"I'm sure they are sad that they couldn't get at the Holy Grail (Social Security) but any day they're able to slash spending on the poor and middle class and "keep the government from raising taxes on rich people is a good day, amirite?
Tue Dec 17, 2013 at 5:04 PM PT: Transcript to David Cay Johnson interview here
http://www.democracynow.org/...