Will The Grassroots Be Happy With Budget Tweaks?
There was minimal rancor yesterday over House and Senate changes to President Obama's budget proposal. In fact, there was almost no rancor at all. Instead, the administration and Harry Reid and conservative Democrats in the Senate seemed all too thrilled with one another.
That will please some liberal grassroots organizations, and should be of particular interest to a campaign called Rebuild and Renew America Now, comprised of over 40 progressive interest groups aligned to usher Obama's budget through the Congress largely unmolested.
David Elliot, communications director for the group USAction, a member of the campaign, says the members (or as many as possible) convene for a daily 10:30 a.m. conference call to discuss budget issues and strategy.
Among their considerations is the crucial role Blue Dogs and conservative Democrats will play in the passage (or blockage) of Obama's agenda. For its part, USAction began airing ads in the districts of conservative Reps. Marion Berry, (D-AR), Allen Boyd, (D-FL), Charlie Melancon (D-LA), Bob Etheridge, (D-NC), and Chet Edwards (D-TX) urging them to "resist special interests and vote for [Obam's budget]. All of them serve on the House Budget Committee. Four of them officially belong to the Blue Dog Caucus.
Similarly, the labor-backed group Americans United for Change (also part of the Renew and Rebuild campaign) went live with ads today in 11 states and Washington D.C. to pressure critics like Kent Conrad and the newly christened Moderate Dems Working Group to support Obama's budget.
These efforts might seem bold and risky, but Elliot says there's little discord within the campaign itself over tactics and organizing. By contrast there is some disagreement within the ranks of a different (somewhat overlapping) umbrella group called Unity '09, which is also dedicated to moving Obama's agenda through Congess. Some Unity participants are much less suspicious of the Blue Dogs and their Senate peers, and have been heavily critical of efforts to pressure them.
As it happens, Conrad released his proposed tweaks to Obama's budget yesterday, and, despite making relatively few substantive changes, he seems to have won for now the support of many of its critics.
Full list of Renew and Rebuild America Now member organizations below the fold.
ACORN
AFL-CIO
AFSCME
American Progressive Caucus Policy
Americans for Democratic Action
Americans United for Change
Campaign for America's Future
Campaign for College Affordability
Campaign for Fresh Air Clean Politics
Center for American Progress
Citizens for Tax Justice
Coalition on Human Needs
Community Action Partnership
Corporation for Enterprise Development
Environment America
Every Child Matters Education Fund
Food Research and Action Center
Health Care for America Now
League of Conservation Voters
MoveOn
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
National Low Income Housing Coalition
National Partnership for Women & Families
National Policy and Advocacy Council on Homelessness
National Priorities Project
National Women's Law Center
NEA
NETWORK
People For the American Way
Public Education Network
RESULTS
Roosevelt Institution
SEIU
Sierra Club
The Arc of the United States
TrueMajority.org
United Cerebral Palsy
United States Student Association
USAction
US Public Interest Research Group
Wider Opportunities for Women
Women's Action for New Directions
Women's Voices Women Vote
YWCA USA


















Whatever happened to Matthew Cooper? Did TPM kick him off for his asinine posts?
March 26, 2009 10:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
Perhaps that is because Harry Reid is a conservative Democrat. I recommend that he formally join the caucus and let a mainstream Democrat serve as Majority Leader.
March 26, 2009 10:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
So what were the "relatively few" substantive changes they made?
All I've heard that the much=feared Blue Dogs managed to do was claw back Congress' favorite gimmicks for obscuring the size of future projected deficits--pretending they're not going to adjust the AMT every year and pretending like there's a snowball's chance in hell that they will repeal a modest tax cut for 95% of the voting taxpayers in two years.
No wonder Obama and Reid are beaming. Unless there's something in those unspecified "relatively few" substantive changes that's really alarming, sounds to me like they got what they wanted for the low, low price of a used fig leaf for the deficit hawks.
March 26, 2009 10:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's just amazing that Washington becomes obsessed with deficits at the precise moment the one thing needed to save the fricking economy is goverment spending. It really boggles the mind how out of touch with reality the Washington establishment is.
March 26, 2009 11:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
We've got a whole generation of people in the MSM who hit the educational system at its nadir in the 70s and 80s and learned everything they know about journalism in local television news. In their ethos, Keynes is some discredited nut, that tax cuts increase revenue and government can't do anything right except kill foreigners and destroy their property. They are still decades away from aging out of the system.
March 26, 2009 12:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
But yeah, Democratic deficits are dangerous and irresponsible. Republican deficits don't matter. Why isn't that self evident to all you morons outside the Beltway?
March 26, 2009 12:15 PM | Reply | Permalink