The Leader's Ledger

State Of Play: Democrat Opposition To President Obama’s Plan Continues To Grow

Senator Tester Becomes The Latest Senate Democrat To Come Out Against President Obama’s Proposal. We went above and beyond by calling the Senator’s office and speaking to Aaron Murphy, Tester’s spokesman. “I can say that Jon is against the president’s proposal,” Murphy told HOH. Roll Call

Senator Bill Nelson Ducks On President Obama’s Proposal, Tells Reporters To Call His Office. Other senators avoided the question entirely. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), who is up for re-election next year, told TPM to call his office for his position on the President's tax reforms. Talking Points Memo

• What His Office Said: “ ... I don’t know that he’d back higher taxes on individuals making more than $200,000,” said spokesman Dan McLaughlin. Politico

The Tax Hikes In President Obama’s Proposal Violate The Very Principles He Claims To Tout. The President calls on [the super committee] to undertake comprehensive tax reform, and lays out five principles for it to follow: 1) lower tax rates; 2) cut wasteful loopholes and tax breaks; 3) reduce the deficit by $1.5 trillion; 4) boost job creation and growth; and 5) comport with the "Buffett Rule" that people making more than $1 million a year should not pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than middle-class families pay."... the administration's tax plan violates these principles. It raises rather than lowers tax rates, shrinks tax deductions to pay for more spending, makes no believable contribution to economic growth, has nothing specific to say about the Buffett Rule, and allocates a third of the proposed $1.5 trillion tax increase over the next decade to such miscellany as the temporary payroll tax break, more subsidies for state and local government jobs, and prolonged unemployment benefits. The Wall Street Journal

• President Obama’s Plan Raises Taxes On Working Families and Small Businesses. ... the president's new-old plan to raise income taxes on families and small businesses earning more than $250,000—to pay for temporary tax gimmicks and extra spending—is just stale wine in a new bottle. Any plan that would impose permanently higher tax rates on income to pay for temporarily lower tax rates on payrolls is no stimulus or jobs plan under any sort of economics. Neither is a tax-financed extension of unemployment benefits. It's a tax-and-spend plan, and a bad one. The Wall Street Journal

Editorial: President Obama Continues To Mislead, It’s Not A Tax Problem – It’s A Spending Problem. In presenting his latest budget proposal on Monday, he gave the false impression that the nation's fiscal burden falls heavily on lower-income people while those in the upper brackets are getting off easy. This is nonsense. ... The federal budget problem has not come about because Americans are taxed too little or because Washington does not rake in enough money. No, the problem is strictly a spending one: While revenue has risen, outlays have risen at an even faster pace. Spending in the past three years alone jumped 30 percent. This will remain true no matter what the slope of the revenue line looks like, until voters pick politicians who are willing to tell them no once in a while. ... The president's proposal calls to mind an economist's description of the Alice-in-Wonderland morality of contemporary liberalism, in which " 'I want mine' is regarded as greedy and unenlightened, while 'I want yours' is regarded as selfless and progressive." If, as Obama claims, his latest proposal is not class warfare, we would hate to see what is. Richmond Times-Dispatch

State Of Play (2): 89 House Democrats Reverse Their Position, Vote For A Government Shutdown

What Happened To The Pay-Go Democrats? We're supposed to be living in an era of fiscal austerity, but you wouldn't know it from the Washington debate over disaster relief. Senate Democrats are refusing to offset even $3.65 billion of emergency relief for Hurricane Irene's damage with other spending reductions. ... Majority Leader Harry Reid and his colleagues are threatening to blame Republicans for a government shutdown because the emergency funding is tied to a continuing resolution to fund the government after September 30 ... When Ms. Landrieu promises to "eventually pay for it," does she mean in 2020, or 2030? If Democrats (and some Republicans) won't cut a mere $3.5 billion now, how are they ever going to cut the hundreds of billions in spending that is necessary to balance the budget? These are the same Democrats who once campaigned on the promise of "pay as you go" budgeting. In the 1990s, Bill Clinton and Republicans in Congress routinely financed disaster relief with other cuts, even after the Oklahoma City bombings. And that was when the deficit was a small fraction of what it is now. The Wall Street Journal

• Ranking Member Norm Dicks Reverses His Position On The Same CR He Supported Last Week. Only last week, the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, Norman Dicks of Washington, had backed the same bill but then reversed himself Wednesday under pressure from his caucus, creating a more partisan battleground. ... Dicks’s sudden reversal was essential to the defeat. Just a week ago, he had talked confidently of working with House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) in anticipation of soon negotiating with the Senate on a final solution for domestic and defense appropriations. The Washington state Democrat was candid that he had come under pressure from his caucus ... Politico

• Minority Whip Hoyer Also Reversed His Position, Votes In Favor Of A Government Shutdown. These lawmakers include House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland and top Appropriations Committee Democrat Norm Dicks of Washington. Both had previously said they would support the measure. The Associated Press

Democrats Vote For Shutdown (Courtesy Of The Majority Whip’s Office)

In August, 95 House Democrats voted in favor of Budget Control Act to set spending levels for the coming fiscal year and prevent a government shutdown. Last night, 89 of those 95 Democrats flipped and voted for a government shutdown. Below is the list of Democrats who voted in support of a government shutdown.
 

• Roll Call - August 1, 2011
   

• Roll Call - September 21, 2011

1. Andrews
2. Barrow
3. Bass (CA)
4. Berkley
5. Berman
6. Bishop (GA)
7. Bishop (NY)
8. Boren
9. Brady (PA)
10. Capps
11. Carnahan
12. Carney
13. Castor (FL)
14. Chandler
15. Cicilline
16. Clay
17. Clyburn
18. Connolly (VA)
19. Cooper
20. Costa
21. Costello
22. Courtney
23. Critz
24. Cuellar
25. Davis (CA)
26. Davis (IL)
27. Deutch
28. Dicks
29. Dingell
30. Doggett
31. Donnelly (IN)
32. Eshoo
33. Fattah
34. Garamendi
35. Green, Gene
36. Gutierrez
37. Hanabusa
38. Heinrich
39. Higgins
40. Himes
41. Hinojosa
42. Hirono
43. Hochul
44. Hoyer
45. Inslee
46. Israel
47. Jackson Lee (TX)
48. Johnson (GA)
49. Johnson, E. B.
50. Keating
51. Kildee
52. Kind
53. Langevin
54. Larsen (WA)
55. Levin
56. Lipinski
57. Lowey
58. Lynch
59. Matheson
60. Meeks
61. Owens
62. Pascrell
63. Pelosi
64. Perlmutter
65. Peterson
66. Polis
67. Quigley
68. Rahall
69. Richmond
70. Ross (AR)
71. Rothman (NJ)
72. Ruppersberger
73. Rush
74. Sanchez, Loretta
75. Schiff
76. Schrader
77. Schwartz
78. Scott, David
79. Sewell
80. Sherman
81. Shuler
82. Sires
83. Speier
84. Thompson (CA)
85. Tsongas
86. Van Hollen
87. Walz (MN)
88. Wasserman Schultz
89. Wilson (FL)

Keeping Tabs

Experts Say Obama's Visit Won't Help Bridge. A presidential visit is a big deal, but will it actually guarantee funding for the aged and overused Brent Spence Bridge? Not really, say transportation experts and highway officials. That's not how highway funding works. ... Even if the bill is passed, it's not clear funding included in the bill for stimulus or the creation of a national infrastructure bank would ever reach the bridge. That's because if the point of the jobs bill is to create jobs now, then the Brent Spence Bridge may make a nice backdrop for a speech, but it's not the best example of a shovel-ready project. According to highway officials in Ohio and Kentucky, the bridge is still in the preliminary engineering and environmental clearance phase. In a best case scenario, the earliest that workers would be hired would be in 2013, but more likely 2015. Cincinnati Enquirer

Reps. Chabot and Davis Send A Letter To President Obama Urging Him To Support Legislation Preventing Job Crushing Regulations On Cement Manufacturers

• View The Letter HERE

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