Principled Obstructionism
by digby
Here's some good news: according to Jane Hamsher, the Democratic leadership has balked at this nutty White House plan to force a "base-closing" style up or down vote. Jane quotes an unnamed source saying:
"Reid and Pelosi sent back word that Congress doesn't get bypassed just because Peter Orszag says it does."
No kidding. Did they really believe that Democratic politicians were going to sit still for social security cuts getting rammed through the congress without amendment during a recession? While they are being asked to repeatedly bail out billionaires on Wall Street? It's political dynamite of the worst kind.
Still, social security terminator Pete Peterson is going to be the big star at this thing and both Obama and Biden are going to speak,so there will be super high level validation of the notion that "entitlement reform" is on the agenda to "pay" for Bush's misbegotten wars and Obama's necessary stimulus. Why they want to do this, I still cannot fathom. It's a zombie theme they are very stupidly reanimating and it's going to take precious political energy to put it back in the ground.
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