Last night, the House passed the so-called “CRomnibus”–part continuing resolution, part omnibus bill, part Pentagon slush fund, part austerity, and part rollback of the regulatory state.
Although they are far from the only toxic pieces of the deal, negotiated by Democratic and Republican appropriators, the two pieces that have faced the most criticism from Democrats have been the part gutting campaign finance laws and the part promising to bail out the banks when they lose money from risky trades (a part that was, in fact, written almost entirely by Citigroup). Our senator Elizabeth Warren has spoken eloquently and forcefully against this effort to partially repeal Dodd-Frank.
However, the toxicity of the deal did not end there:
But there’s so much more to the CRomnibus than just those two riders. Under the bill, trustees would be enabled to cut pension benefits to current retirees, reversing a 40-year bond with workers who earned their retirement packages. Voters in the District of Columbia who approved legalized marijuana will see their initiative vaporized, with local government prohibited from taxing or regulating the drug’s sale. Trucking companies can make roads less safe by giving their employees 82-hour work weeks without sufficient rest breaks. Pell grants for college students will be cut, with the money diverted to private student loan contractors who have actively harmed borrowers. Government financiers of overseas projects will be prevented from stopping funding for coal-fired power plants. Blue Cross and Blue Shield will be allowed to count “quality improvement” measures toward their mandatory health spending under Obamacare’s “medical loss ratio” provision, a windfall saving them millions of dollars.
I’m not done. The bill eliminates a bipartisan measure to end “backdoor” searches by the NSA of Americans’ private communications. It blocks the EPA from regulating certain water sources for farmers. It adds an exception to allow the U.S. to continue to fund Egypt’s military leadership. In a giveaway to potato growers, it reduces nutrition standards in school lunches and the Women, Infant and Children food aid program. It halts the listing of new endangered species. It stops the regulation of lead in hunting ammunition or fishing equipment. It limits contributions to the Green Climate Fund to compensate poor countries ravaged by climate change. I could go on. And even if the offending measures on derivatives and campaign finance were removed, all of that dreck would remain.
Although Nancy Pelosi rhetorically opposed the deal and did vote NO on it, she did not whip against it. Some progressive Democrats, led by Maxine Waters, were whipping against it. But they had to face the opposing whipping team of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and their good friend Jamie Dimon.Ultimately, Democrats, as one could–unfortunately–expect, provided the votes needed to pass the bill. The final vote was 219 to 206. 162 Republicans and 57 Democrats voted for it. 139 Democrats and 67 Republicans voted against it.
Thankfully, however, the Massachusetts delegation voted with the people of Massachusetts, rather than Jamie Dimon.
Not a single member of the Massachusetts delegation voted YES on the bill. The eight who were present voted NO. Mike Capuano, whose wife recently broke her ankle, has not been in attendance this week, so he did not vote. However, per his latest e-update email, he would have voted NO had he been present.
Massachusetts was the largest state to provide no votes to the Cromnibus. The representatives from Hawaii, Maine, Rhode Island, and Vermont all voted no as well. Cynthia Lummis–the only representative from Wyoming–also voted NO, but she deserves no credit because she originally voted YES, changing her vote to NO only at the last minute.
The other day, a Republican Senate aide told The Hill, “If liberal Democrats vote for this package it shows that conservatives can use must-pass legislation to repeal the regulatory state.” Granted, many of the Democrats who voted for the bill are not “liberals.” But the vote nevertheless shows that Republicans will be able to roll back various parts of the regulatory state (financial, environmental, labor, etc.) over the next two years by shoving such provisions into “must-pass” bills that Obama will sign and lobby Democrats to pass.We have a long two years ahead of us.
1) Thanks for a great post!
I was surprised to see no discussion of this on the forums and was going to do my own post on it, but you beat me to it and did a great job linking the actual votes of our delegation to the high stakes involved. Really illustrated how much the White House went to bat for the bankers, and how our senior Senator has emerged not only as the face of the liberal opposition to Republicans but to her party’s own White House as well.
2) The battle lines are drawn-it”s always been the economy
This will serve as a much needed reminder for why Democrats have to make economic litmus tests the barometers for future primary challengers. It also serves to show why we should be leery of another Clinton administration, why Joe Biden is not really to her left, and why Steny Hoyer should be nowhere near the top leadership in the House going forward.
3) GOP Still Stands for Big Government Conservatism
And in case any conservative relative or friend argues that their party is taking on crony capitalism, brings up Solyndra or some other bullshit talking point- show them this bill. Not only does it take a massive dump on civil liberties by expanding government power, it also lets the big banks off the hook and allows a lot of specialty special interests like the potato lobby get some sweet pork right out of the backroom of the budget committee.
4) We have identified the Ketchup Caucus and they are our foes
Unlike Joe McCarthy our 57 names are real, and unlike Heinz ketchup, these 57 varieties add neither flavor or true diversity to our caucus-these are the Wall Street hacks for all to see. These are the 57 to rally against TPP, the first bipartisan bill we will see Obama hash out behind closed doors with his business partners, er Congressional leadership partners John Boehner and Mitch McConnell. Just as Keystone is a symbolic game over for climate change, TPP is Labor’s last hill to die on, and if it is voted through with big Democratic support we can kiss any fair trade or union vision future in our party goodbye.
5) When you negotiate with terrorists the will only come back with mroe demands
We hear that phrase from everyone from Bibi Netenyahu to the revolving door President’s Jack Bauer served under, but it actually rings true in political negotiations. That Republican Senate staffer was correct, simply the threat of a shutdown is now more than enough to get the Democrats to ally with John Boehner against his caucus and pass special interest laden giveaways to big business. Had Obama vetoed this bill, had the Democrats voted it down, we would then have seen the GOP get blamed for yet another shutdown on the eve of their ascendency to full Congressional control. Wouldn’t this have been a fantastic Christmas gift to our party and our cause?
Instead, we bailed them out and bailed the banks out too. I can’t think of anything more demonstrative of the total failure of strategic leadership and tactical thinking in our party than yesterday’s vote. Like in a bad B movie, we keep pulling the bad guy off the cliff only to see him stand back up and try and throw us over. How many times can our Charlie Brown President try and kick the football of bipartisan grand bargains? The policy implications of which would permanently erode the economic foundations of our party’s core commitments to working Americans.
What has happened to this guy?
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2014/1211/Obama-and-House-Republicans-join-forces-to-pass-1.1T-budget-video
We have learned, sadly, that Barack Obama listens to Wall Street and the big-money power brokers that control both our economy and our government.
It appears to me that:
1. The real Barack Obama is more Republican than Democrat. He might be a “moderate Republican” or even “liberal Republican” if those entities still existed today, but he — like every Republican — values big-money interests above all else.
2. The distinction between “Republican” and “Democrat” is irrelevant when big money is at stake.
Mr. Obama seems to still believe that if he will only cave often enough, he will someday persuade the GOP the he is really one of them. It seems that he fails to realize that the combination of his race and his party affiliation will forever make that fantasy impossible.
I anticipate two more years of similar betrayal.
“People say Washington is broken. It’s not broken, it’s working exactly the way the big money interests want it to work.”
Note: paraphrase.
You know people on my side of the fence don’t like crony capitalism, businesses that are all reward/no risk, government contract gougers, and all the rest. I don’t know how to change that. I honestly thought that when BO came into office (because he wasn’t a Clinton or an R) something would change. Obviously not.
I’m glad to see Elizabeth Warren and the MA delegation opposing the corrupt elements of this bill.
I agree there’s often too little or no difference between the 2 major parties on serving big money interests and there’s certainly corruption on both sides. And I believe we need more campaign finance reform, public campaign financing, and disclosure to help tackle those issues.
However I think there are real differences between the parties in other areas. I saw in North Carolina a Democratic legislature that was expanding voting rights and LGBT protections. Then in 2010 the tea party wave came through kicking the Democrats out for the first time in 100 years. They locked themselves in with redistricting and aren’t going anywhere for at least a decade.
The Democrats before had corrupting elements. The Republicans in control now having their corrupting elements. But the biggest changes I’ve seen with the Republicans coming to power were restricting voting rights (cutting down early voting, ending same-day registration, ending teenager pre-registration, enacting photo ID, etc), passing legislation to reduce access to abortion, passing an anti-marriage equality constitutional amendment, slashing public education & shifting that funding to religious schools, slashing public university funding, rejecting the medicaid expansion, slashing environmental protections, and so much more.
Both sides are beholden too much to big money, and yet there is still a very large difference between the parties at least down here. And those differences are going to haunt my state for decades.
…why the administration supports this?
The administration has come down on the side of Wall Street on virtually every debate within the Democratic Party since even before John Roberts fucked up the oath on January 20, 2009.
Is it really just not wanting to upset a source of political contributions? I seem to recall the Wall Street-instigated economic collapse was a key factor in his being elected in the first place – does the President himself not see it that way? I also thought Dodd-Frank was something he pushed for.
He named Geithner and Summers the same week. Dodd-Frank as passed was relatively weak tea and throughout the process the administration lobbied to water it down. Why? Contributions. Or Obama doesn’t get economics and thinks Summers is smartest guy around. Or his own instincts are way to my right. I don’t know. I just know what the administration has done for six years.
…Summers was part of the Clinton economic team that brought us the longest sustained growth stretch in history, so the idea that maybe he knew what he was doing isn’t necessarily that unreasonable.
A big tech bubble and the biggest crash since the Great Depression. It was the Clinton-Summers crew who dismantled Glass-Steagall and deregulated exotic new financial instruments.
We’ve been around this before – I just follow the results, low inflation, low unemployment, 20+ million new jobs, budgets balanced, expanded trade, more homeowners, increased minimum wage. Everything in the right direction. Hindsight is 20/20, but honestly in the circumstances I probably would have made many of the same decisions.
During the Clinton era, those things were all true. I don’t share the opinion of Fenway49 that “the Clinton-Summers crew” was responsible for the Great Recession.
Regardless, by the time the Great Recession happened it was obvious to everyone except Barack Obama and Wall Street that Wall Street was responsible. Heads should have rolled — instead large bonuses were paid.
Whatever happened during the Clinton era and even the Bush era is less important, in my view, then what THIS administration has done while in office.
THIS administration gives every indication that it is owned lock, stock and barrel by Wall Street.
here.
approves of this bill, by Crom! As a true might-makes-right libertarian, he looks forward to the United States’ continuing slide into corporate barbarism.
“To anyone at Citigroup who might be listening I agree with you, Dodd-Frank wasn’t perfect: It should have broken you to pieces.”
Powerful stuff here’s the link …hopefully
The democratic party does have leaders after all.
The link tool failed me here’s the link to cut and paste:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJpTxONxv00
…and I don’t think it was meant as a compliment, but she is on fire and I hope she does not let up.