Spending fears threaten Dem agenda

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Politico:

At a closed-door meeting with a small group of House Democrats late last month, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi heard gripes from members not happy about having to vote on a big spending measure at a time when many voters think government growth and deficits are out of control.

Nothing new there. Pelosi’s been hearing this type of message from the noisy caucus of moderate Blue Dog Democrats for a year and a half.

But this time was different: The malcontents were freshmen, many of whom have enthusiastically backed President Barack Obama’s agenda most of the way but now are choking on its cost.

Some of the first-term lawmakers said the dollar figure on a nearly $200 billion spending and tax cuts package was too big for them, even if some of the package was paid for with revenue offsets, according to senior party aides.

“I’m just at a point where I don’t want to see any more unpaid spending,” Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), a freshman from a previously Republican district, told POLITICO the day of that meeting. He said concern about spending is “fairly common” in the 2008 group of freshman House Democrats because they are “a little more inclined to keep an ear to the ground.”

Indeed, as the deficit grows, the political will to vote for more spending shrinks. Democrats are suffering pushback — and even defections — from far outside the Blue Dog Coalition on core party issues like unemployment and health insurance subsidies.

Reps. Ron Klein and Suzanne Kosmas of Florida, Melissa Bean of Illinois, Chris Murphy of Connecticut, Gerry Connolly of Virginia, Mike McMahon of New York and Steve Driehaus of Ohio — none of them Blue Dogs — were among the 34 Democrats who voted no on the package, even after House leaders winnowed it to appease Blue Dogs, freshmen and other lawmakers sensitive to constituents’ pleas to reduce spending.

Now, virtually every domestic spending initiative is in peril.

The annual budget resolution most likely would have been dead on arrival had it ever arrived. An emergency supplemental spending bill has been weighed down by a $23 billion request for education funds and other ancillary items. And outside of national security measures, there’s no sign of life among the dozen annual spending bills that keep the government running.

“This isn’t just about the Blue Dogs,” Pelosi said in a conference call with liberal bloggers last week. “There is a very ... changed climate in terms of the size of the spending, the investment packages that we are putting forth.”
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Translation: "We need to save our phony-baloney jobs! And claiming to care about spending is the only way to do it! Harrumph!"