First, it was Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) voting against the fiscal cliff deal because it added to the deficit. Now one of the other Democratic “no” votes in the upper chamber — from Joe Biden’s home state, no less — says he rejected the deal because it didn’t tackle entitlement reform.
“The deal the Senate passed this morning is not the grand bargain that I, and many of us, had hoped for, and that’s why I ultimately voted against it,” Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) explained in a detailed statement Tuesday.
One key element for any “genuine budget plan,” Carper said, is that it “had to reform entitlements in order to preserve programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security for future generations.”
“When push came to shove, we walked away from entitlement and meaningful tax reform, at least for now,” the senator said. “Rahm Emanuel, former chief of staff to President Obama, is fond of saying, ‘Never waste a good crisis.’ I’m afraid that we’ve just wasted a doozie at a time when our president’s bargaining power was at its zenith.”
Carper also singled out the can-kicking aspect, noting that “two months from now, we face the prospect of yet another debt ceiling crisis and more turmoil that will discourage a lot of American businesses from investing their cash in hiring new employees that will help our economy grow.”
“…My hope is that this intransigence will someday be overcome, and that the next time there’s a serious effort to put together a budget deal, both sides will stay at the table and seize the opportunity to make the hard choices we know have to be made.”
Carper is an avowed supporter of the Simpson-Bowles plan to cut the deficit $4 trillion over the next 10 years with a combination of tax reform, entitlement reform, and spending cuts.
The third Senate Democrat to reject the fiscal cliff deal in the wee hours, Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), voted “no” after railing against the element of the bill in which the threshold for tax hikes was raised from Harkin (and Obama’s) preferred $250,000 level to $450,000 for households.
Harkin called the higher income for higher taxes “a tough pill to swallow.”
This is the sort of Democrat I could vote for.
The one with a calculator and he knows how to use it.
The problem isn’t Ideology, it is mathematics.
WE CAN’T AFFORD THIS.
I am from Colorado and Bennett does not believe in budget constraints. He checked with the Democrat Party bosses before casting his safe vote against the Senate bill. Had there been any doubt about passage, he would have been front and center with a yes vote. This guy is a long time liberal who plants these types of votes out there so he can win elections. And the usually stupid voters in Colorado vote for him because of it. He is a classic Trojan Horse. Watch how he votes on the next ten bills the Dems push out there.
It’s always oh so easy when other peoples’ money is used; easy to bicker, easy to spend, and easy to give away to others. What arrogance, crass and bull$it; I’d expect this from pre-adolescants. This isn’t rocket science. I say take away 10% of congressional pay/benifits each day a balanced budget isn’t approved.
You know what i like about Big Business Assholes who run companies like mid-evil Kingdoms in old Europe? They got things done!They took out the swords,leave the Castle and go to town! You know what i don’t like about congress? Everything! A fat,gray,privileged condescending corrupt gaggle of store bought quacking ducks!
You know what i like about the Romans? When invaded from the north they raised up armies with competent leaders who killed Germans to the tune of 80,000 to 150,000.Now that’s problem solving!To be sure that problem didn’t return for another generation.
Soon to be politically ruined by his commie… er, Democrat… buddies for integrity and ideological heresy.
See if he means what he says. We’ll come up against the debt limit in about two months. See what this man does in the meantime. Does he bring up anything in the senate to address this issue or does he just wait for the next ‘crisis’?
Did he ever do anything to challenge Reid in the runup to the fiscal cliff? Would he have voted against this bill if his vote would have made the difference? Somehow, I doubt it. The large margin for passage made it possible for him to cast a protest vote. It let him play both sides.
“…The third Senate Democrat to reject the fiscal cliff deal in the wee hours, Tom Harkin (R-Iowa)”
Harkin switched parties?
These were meaningless no votes (the bill would pass anyway). You’ll never see a Congressional Dem break with the party when it matters. To praise this conduct is only to contribute to an elaborate fraud that there are any such creatures as “moderate” Washington Democrats.
I agree with Koo Koo – the bill was guaranteed to pass, so Reid let these so-called “brave” Democrats vote no in order for them to burnish their “fiscal cred” for their next election campaign. If the vote was in doubt, these Senators would’ve voted yes if so instructed.
Lets see if I have this right. Brave for casting a meaningless vote against a bill that passed overwhelmingly. It tells nothing about the senator other than the fact he was looking to the future and how this vote might be used.
Almost all of these guys (there are exceptions like Rand Paul) love big government. IMO the vote of Rubio was nothing more than positioning himself with the ignorant Elephant masses.
Calculated, political vote to provide cover down the road; not about to welcome him to the Republican Party. Carper will never again mention entitlement reform, which was never on the table anyway during these talks (another Democrat asleep at the switch.)
So, what is Bennett doing being a Democrat?
He votes with his comrades every time his vote matters. He votes like this when he can get away with it because he campaigns as a fiscal conservative in order to win elections. Sort of like the West Virginia bozo named Manchin, whatever the spelling is.