Support the Troops

The Blue Dog Democrats are one of the major blots on the Democratic party at this point, and the fact the the Democratic leadership was working so hard to get them elected in the last midterm is probably a good indication of what's wrong with the leadership. Y'know, if I'd wanted Republicans to maintain their majority, I would have been supporting Republicans. As it is, we have a Congress with far too many Joe Liebermans running around loose.

Here's the latest outrage:

Here you have (some) conservative Democrats who have repeatedly voted to fund a war without worrying about how to pay for it, and now all of sudden they show pangs of fiscal responsibility about not coming up with the monies to fund one program in the new war spending bill. Blue Dogs finally getting with the program: Sounds great, right?

Not so fast, because the part they are raising fiscal responsibility objectives about is…wait for it, because it’s really going to infuriate you…education benefits for veterans. Where was this sort of ethic from Blue Dogs when the Bush administration was asking for billions to be handed over to venal, wasteful, no-bid contract-winning war profiteers?

“Some of us oppose creating a new entitlement program in an emergency spending bill, whether it’s butchers, bakers or candlestick-makers,” said Rep. John Tanner (D-Tenn.), a founding member of the Blue Dog Coalition who serves on the House leadership team as a deputy whip. The so-called GI Bill of Rights, authored by Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), would give veterans money for college and cost $720 million in its first two years. But critics say that could grow to billions in future years.”

No! Not billions spent without funds to pay for it -- that just never happens in defense spending!

This is the element of the Democratic party that is very comfortable with billions in no-bid contracts to well-connected corporations for work that done poorly, if it's done at all. They like the idea of a billion dollars for a bridge in their district, whether it actually goes anywhere or not, bBut let's not waste money on maintaining the bridges that are already up. Subsidies for farm families that make $1.5 million from farming are OK, but we don't need to waste money on those who are in actual danger of losing their farms because of rising prices for feed, fertilizer and energy and falling prices for what they grow. And by all means, let's fund Bush's war in perpetuity, but let's not waste money on taking care of the people who are actually doing the fighting.

There's a whole litany of things like this, and I'm a little fed up. Unfortunately, it looks as though the Democratic leadership is part of that element, way too comfortable hobnobbing with major donors and large corporate interests, but their actual constituents, not so much.

They've all pretty much been in Washington too long.