Here Are the Progressives Who Voted Against the GOP's Debt Ceiling 'Extortion Scheme'

[cbabe]

https://www.commondreams.org/news/progressives-vote-against-debt-deal

Here Are the Progressives Who Voted Against the GOP's Debt Ceiling 'Extortion Scheme'


We cannot continue to capitulate to a far-right Republican Party and their extreme demands while they inflict policy violence on working-class people, gut our bedrock environmental protections, and decimate our planet," said Rep. Rashida Tlaib.

JAKE JOHNSON
Jun 01, 2023

Nearly 40 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus broke with the majority of their House Democratic colleagues late Wednesday to vote against the debt ceiling agreement negotiated by President Joe Biden and Republican leaders.

The legislation, which would lift the debt ceiling until January 2025 and enact painful caps on non-military federal spending, passed the GOP-controlled House by a vote of 314 to 117, with 165 Democrats joining 149 Republicans in supporting the measure.

The bill's passage came after weeks of talks between the White House—which repeatedly said it would not negotiate over the debt ceiling—and Republicans who manufactured the standoff to pursue austerity for low-income Americans, gifts for rich tax cheats, and handouts to the fossil fuel industry.

While Republicans didn't get anything close to what they called for in legislation they passed in late April, progressives who voted against the bill on Wednesday said the final agreement will harm vulnerable people and the planet by imposing new work requirements on aid recipients and approving the Mountain Valley Pipeline—a top priority of fossil fuel industry ally Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.).

…

In total, 38 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) voted against the legislation:

Reps. Tlaib, Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Katie Porter (D-Calif.), Cori Bush (D-Mo.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), Summer Lee (D-Pa.), Greg Casar (D-Texas), Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.), Nanette Barragán (D-Calif.), Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Ro Khanna, (D-Calif.), Chuy García (D-(Ill.), Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.), Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.), Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), Grace Meng (D-N.Y.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), Val Hoyle (D-Ore.), Juan Vargas (D-Calif.), Nikema Williams (D-Ga.), Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas), Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.), Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), Judy Chu (D-Calif.), and Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.).
But the CPC members who joined Republicans in voting yes on the bill, including prominent progressive Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), outnumbered those who opposed it.

…more…

[a kennedy]

1. Dang it, Katy Porter???

[The Unmitigated Gall]

9. Yep.

Had been supporting her for Senator. Now I think it’ll be Schiff. This a moment for unity, for practicality over perfection.

[womanofthehills]

13. Makes me like Katie & Barbara Lee more

Plus we need more women in Senate. I love both of them - if I lived in Cal I would have a hard time choosing between them.

[Hortensis]

19. I'm wondering how their behavior would change in the senate --

it should, extremely different dynamics. But concerned also about this public positioning in two people currently campaigning for the senate -- what if it didn't?

In the house this current vote is a statement that can be made without doing harm.

Today in the senate, though, 3 Democrats voted YES to overturn the student loan relief measure passed by over 200 Democrats in the house last week. (Manchin, Sinema, and Tester.) It passed, 52-48, our student debt relief provision in the debt ceiling bill defeated. Fortunately, right now we have a Democratic president who promises to veto it.

That won't always be the case, and of course a lot of times only 1 dissenting vote would defeat the combined work of the rest of the senate Democratic caucus AND over 200 Democrats in the house.

The senate is DIFFERENT. Senators are incredibly more powerful and effectively can't be controlled. Or touched -- any senator with the sense to smile for the cameras can stay for decades.

There's time to think about it. For now, they're both well placed in the house, making themselves felt on committees and speaking for the many who agree with them.

[Brother Buzz]

17. I don't like her vote, but I guarantee I would totally accept her well reasoned reason for voting no

[tritsofme]

2. A bunch of grandstanders.

I am impressed that Omar voted yes, incredibly responsible.

[Red Pest]

3. Symbolic "NO" votes

If more votes were needed for passage some or all of these members of the CPC would almost certainly voted YES. This allows them to say and demonstrate that they were against the the increased work requirements, the approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, the capping of the budget for the next two years (while increasing the amounts going to the military), etc.

[tritsofme]

6. I always view these "protest votes" as a profile in cowardice.

They get to grandstand and posture for their base, while it falls to President Biden to make tough choices and provide actual leadership.

But hey, I bet it’s great for their fundraising appeals! And they get plaudits from magazines like this, who delight in ripping Democrats.

[hippywife]

11. No, it's not.

Of all of the members of the House, these are the ones who vote exactly the way their constituents would want them to, the issues they were elected to battle.

As stated above, and I've no doubt this is absolutely true, had the votes been needed to stop the RWNJ caucus from causing a default, the progressive caucus would have peeled off the number of members needed to vote in support the bill to prevent it.

Welcome to how shit works in the House.

[tritsofme]

12. That sounds like the dictionary definition of cowardice.

They would have abandoned their “principles” to vote yes, if they really had to, but instead choose to grandstand and pander to their base in a show vote against President Biden, while responsible lawmakers do the right thing regardless.

A craven and cowardly bunch.

[hippywife]

23. They're not fucking grandstanding.

They voted according to their conscience and their constituents, like we'd all like to be able to do. They were only able to do it because they knew they had to votes to pass it. If they didn't they would have voted with the rest of the Dems to prevent the default. They are not the fucking enemy.

And if you can't understand that's the way it works, that's on you.

This wasn't a great deal, it was the best we could get under the circumstances.

Welcome to ignore, BTW.

[tritsofme]

24. Shame you didn't add me earlier!

It would have saved you the embarrassment of displaying such tortured logic to everyone.

This was purely a calculation about fundraising and pandering.

[stopdiggin]

14. in your own words

if their votes had been necessary, they would have voted for passage.

Moral convictions? (only when it doesn't matter?) Or maybe this is precisely what the poster called it - posturing for the crowd?

Look I'm not going to hammer these people for their throwaway votes. In the end it means little or nothing. But they hardly are deserving of any resounding applause either.

[ProfessorGAC]

16. It Seems You're Arguing Against Your Own Point

They would have voted for it if it was needed for passage. Your premise. And, I think you're right.
That suggests their no votes are empty symbolism as they would have been willing to forego their principles to obtain passage.
I also question the notion that they voted how their constituents wanted. Those constituents went strongly Biden in 2020, so going along with HIS deal is unlikely to be anathema to those voters. I think those voters would, by & large, approve of a yes vote.

[f_townsend]

26. Why don't you show us how brave you are, and publicly identify yourself in a LTTE

explaining why you think these Democrats are "cowards".

[tritsofme]

27. lol, a letter to which editor?

Throwing President Biden under the bus is cowardly, full stop.

President Biden has the actual responsibility to
make tough choices, and doesn’t have the luxury to cast throwaway votes pandering to some perceived national base to boost fundraising appeals.

[f_townsend]

28. Ok, then you can start here n/t

[tritsofme]

29. You can start by responding to what I've written.

If there is any purpose to this interaction.

[Kennah]

32. This

[Snooper9]

4. We should do an experiment-

Lock the 71 Republicans and 46 Democrats who voted against it in a room and see what they come up with.

We'll provide them slightly smaller food rations as each day goes by. Asshole Boebert can be the server she didn't vote either way LOL

[Progressive dog]

8. I think we already know what they will come up with.

IMO We'd see a default on the debt that would last forever. Now maybe some of these people would have changed their votes if a preventing a default required it, but they deserve no credit for doing the wrong thing.

[gab13by13]

5. A wise Democrat once said,

there is a difference between unanimity and unity. Jim Clyburn.

[maxsolomon]

7. Really don't care much.

This near-annual farce should belong to the Centrists.

[KPN]

10. They all knew this bill was going to pass. I appreciate their votes and their voices. Progressive

voices are important to the Democratic Party agenda and always have been.

[FakeNoose]

15. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi was able to keep these grandstanders under control

She let them take turns, they could make their protest votes only if it didn't hurt the Party. I hope Hakeem Jeffries was paying attention and taking notes.

Just sayin'

[Brother Buzz]

18. Curiously, one quarter of the no votes were from California

[edhopper]

20. Tip O'Neil said

the most important job of a Party leader is to count votes. You must allow members to vote against or for something, against the Party's goal, if it will still pass. It makes their district happy while not getting in the way of what needs to be done.

[Demsrule86]

21. Their vote was not needed so they had permission to vote as they did.

[emulatorloo]

22. Yes, that is what it boils down to.

[Demsrule86]

31. That is what I think!

[fishwax]

25. this is a good thing

A unanimous vote by democrats would serve no real purpose. But this deal doesn't happen without the threat of votes potentially splitting off from the democrats, and those threats are of course meaningless in the long run without the actuality of a few democrats not voting for the bill. Now Biden gets credit for crafting a bipartisan deal, McCarthy most likely gets to retain his tenuous hold over his caucus, and democrats keep a hamstrung leader of a fractured caucus in the speaker's chair.

[mvd]

30. I am fine with their votes

I read that leadership told them to vote the way they wanted, and they had the votes to pass it. I don’t like the bill, but would have voted to avoid default. The 14th Amendment, which I wanted President Biden to use, would be very risky due to a stay that could be issued.