Posted by
John Kuethe on Thursday, March 05, 2009 12:51:15 PM
It is not just conservatives who are upset with the runaway spending by the Obama administration. Democrats Evan Bayh of Indiana and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin have come forth and stated tat they will not support the omnibus spending bill and urged President Obama to veto it.
The White House promises Obama will sign the bill despite unhappiness over the 8,000 or so homestate pet projects.
Democrats Evan Bayh of Indiana and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin said they will vote against the bill; both urged Obama to veto it.
"There's just a disconnect between what people are having to go through in their daily lives — tightening their belts, economizing where they can — and what they see the government is doing," Bayh said in an interview. "I just think it's tone deaf and, substantively, we do need to get the deficit under control." Star Tribune
This is a drop in the bucket vote wise as there are several moderate Republicans who are likely to support the bill to protect their pork prjects, but it is an indication that the Democrat Party may be showing some cracks in its united façade. If there are a few that don’t follow the President like lemmings off a cliff, surely more will surface as time goes on.
On the House side we also get hints at displesure with the Obama agenda from Democrat representatives Jim Matheson of Utah and Gabriel Giffords of Arizona. CQ Politics is reporting that these two representatives have joined what they are calling a quiet revolt that could slow the President’s agenda.
The two are among 49 Democrats from congressional districts that backed Republican Sen. John McCain 's 2008 presidential race and whose support for the Democratic majority's progressive agenda is increasingly not assured.
A dozen of them were among 20 House Democrats who voted against the $410 billion discretionary fiscal 2009 spending package (HR 1105) on Feb. 25. Another group later forced House leaders to sideline a contentious bill (HR 1106) to allow bankruptcy judges to modify home loans. CQ Politics
The rapid way that President Obama has force fed his agenda to the American people and both houses of Congress have left many heads reeling. Policy changes in the government are usually accompanied by debate and compromise, but all the spending we have seen put through in the weeks since his inauguration have been fast tracked by President Obama; giving Senators and representatives little time to read them before they are asked to vote on them. The President seems to be counting on party line voting from Democrats on anything he puts forth. What he fails to realize is that the mood of the people is very negative toward monumental spending. Democrat politicians see the writing on the wall that if they support the President’s effort of breaking the financial backbone of this Nation, they will likely not have the support they need come re-election time. The political backlash in response to the spending bill and the pork attached to it could be something which will take the Democrats years to recover from. Every one who has issuees with the pork and spending in the omnibus bill should keep the pressure on by letting their Senators and Representatives know that they will not tolerate the bankrupting of their country to fulfill the President’s vision of what America should be.