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The Spectacle Blog
Remember those supposedly fiscally conservative “Blue Dog” Democrats. They are now being taken for a ride by their leadership and especially President-elect Barack Obama who, they believe, intends to transform entitlements and most everything else.
The costs of the stimulus will not abide by pay-as-you-go principle, one of the most important issues for Blue Dogs.
After years of waging a frustrating battle to get their congressional leaders to act on their fiscal reform plans, Blue Dog Democrats are buoyed by the hope that Obama will finish the job for them.
In fact, Blue Dogs believe the president-elect’s commitment to economic reform is so pronounced that a number of them who have bucked Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) past efforts to bypass pay-go are lining up in favor of a stimulus bill.
Blue Dogs, though, know they don’t have much leverage on this stimulus legislation because it is expected to sail through Congress - with or without their backing.
Pelosi spent much of her first term as Speaker fighting, cajoling and sometimes giving up on dozens of fiscally conservative Democrats who agreed with much of her economic agenda, but who could not stomach borrowing more money to pay it.
As she leads the House’s efforts to pass a new economic stimulus bill that could top $1 trillion, the Speaker is not only finding Blue Dogs in her corner, but seeing them publicly backing her and even standing alongside her leadership lieutenants at policy press conferences.
The irony is that the change has almost nothing to do with anything Pelosi has done.
The Blue Dog euphoria that swept through the House chamber on Wednesday had almost everything to do with Obama, and his consistent and amplified commitment to the Blue Dog caucus; long-term entitlement reform; and a return to balanced budgets over the long term.
Waiving pay-go rules could become a common occurrence this year, however. Democrats will have to move a Medicare payment fix and an Alternative Minimum Tax measure that could cost hundreds of billions of dollars. Moreover, Democrats have suggested major healthcare reform will not be fully offset, meaning the price tag of that measure could also be hundreds of billions of dollars.
Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), who voted against the last two stimulus bills on the grounds that they were not paid for, joined a number of Democratic leaders at a Wednesday press conference to talk up the new stimulus plan.
“Government can walk and chew gum at the same time. We can stimulate the economy and address our long-term problems at the same time,” said Cooper, who later joked that he couldn’t remember the last time he was asked to attend a leadership press conference.
Maybe the Blue Dogs will be proved right. Alas, I have this sneaking suspicion that in four years we will have is a lot more debt for the present but only reform promises for the future.
View all comments (12) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Doug Bandow
http://spectator.org/blog/2009/01/08/taking-the-blue-dog-democrats
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Alan Brooks| 1.8.09 @ 8:13PM
Obama did say it will be take a long time to dig out of the hole were in, unquote.
As in: eight years.
Alexander A. K. Husksford IV| 1.8.09 @ 8:50PM
The problem for the Democrats and Blue Dogs in particular is that many of them gained their office by leaning conservative.
While the Blue Dogs are falling in line with Speaker Pelosi, that doesn't mean that the voters who put them in office will be falling in line also.
ConservativeWanderer | 1.8.09 @ 9:23PM
Indeed, Alexander... if the Blue Dogs toe the Pelosi line too closely, they may be in real electoral trouble in 2010.
In effect, by forcing them to move to the left, Pelosi is sowing the seeds of another 1994 in the House.
Eric Dondero | 1.8.09 @ 9:28PM
So, um, what's everybody waiting for.
Let's invite them to ditch the Democrats, and come on over to join the GOP!
Spicy Joker| 1.8.09 @ 9:51PM
The Blue Dogs are liberals masquerading as conservatives. If they were fiscally conservative, you wouldn't have joined the Democratic Party.
ConservativeWanderer | 1.8.09 @ 10:07PM
Joker, it's simply easier in some parts of the country to get elected if you have a D after your name... just like some lefties find it easier to get elected in some areas with an R after their name.
D does not automatically mean lefty, nor does R automatically indicate conservative. Stereotyping is lazy thinking. Personally, I'll take a conservative D (like Zell Miller) over a lefty R (such as Lindsey Graham) any day.
Spicy Joker| 1.9.09 @ 2:40AM
Yeah, but those parts of the country where the Blue Dogs are getting elected are conservative areas.
ConservativeWanderer | 1.9.09 @ 5:58PM
Joker, you appear to still be laboring under the misapprehension that to be conservative, one must be Republican, and to be liberal (leftist, as I prefer to say, given the original definition of classical liberalism) is to be Democrat. Unfortunately, such is not the case. Sit down, Grasshopper, and let me explain in a bit more detail.
While it is true that the vast preponderance of lefties is in the Democratic Party, and most conservatives are Republicans, there is no legal bar to a conservative being listed as a Democrat, nor for a lefty to call him or herself a Republican. There are many reasons for this, including one that we saw in the last election... a relatively conservative Democrat unseated the odious pork-meister Republican Ted Stevens in Alaska. While new Senator Mark Begich is pro-choice and pro-same sex marriage, he is also pro-ANWR drilling and pro-gun, making him pretty much as conservative as Stevens (who also says he is pro-choice). I have no special insight into the internal reasoning, but it's possible that Begich decided the odds of defeating Stevens were better in the general election than if he ran against Stevens as a Republican in the GOP primaries.
I say again, stereotyping (all Ds are liberal, therefore all liberals must be D; all Rs are conservative, therefore all conservatives must be R) is lazy thinking. One must remember that conservatives and lefties can exist in both parties.
Thus endeth the lesson, Grasshopper.
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