WP: Democrats Pledge to Restrain Spending

[Pirate Smile]

Democrats Pledge to Restrain Spending
Critics Say Party's Goals Are Too Lofty

By Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 26, 2006; Page A01

Determined to banish their old tax-and-spend image, Democrats want to shrink the federal deficit, preserve tax cuts for the middle class and challenge the president to raise money for the Iraq war when they take control of Congress next week. But it won't be easy.

The incoming Democratic chairmen of the House and Senate Budget committees said they plan to honor a campaign promise to devote billions of additional dollars a year to homeland security and education. And they reiterated a commitment not to cut off funding for U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But with the costs of those military operations rising and President Bush considering an expansion of forces, the incoming chairmen, Rep. John M. Spratt Jr. (S.C.) and Sen. Kent Conrad (N.D.), said they will have little room in their budget blueprints for significant new domestic spending, such as closing a much-criticized gap in the new Medicare prescription-drug benefit that forces millions of seniors to pay 100 percent of drug costs for a few weeks or months each year.

They said they will press Bush to help finance a war that is costing the nation as much as $8 billion a month.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/25/AR2006122500549.html

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

1. Article sounds like it was

sourced almost entirely by blue dog democrats. x(

[Quantess]

2. What is a "blue dog democrat"?

[ChazII]

3. From Wikipedia

Blue Dog Democrats are conservative to moderate Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives<1>. Blue Dogs are an actual coalition of like-minded Democrats organized as the Blue Dog Coalition, rather than just an expression such as "Yellow dog Democrat." The term is a reference to the "Blue Dog" paintings of Cajun artist George Rodrigue of Lafayette, Louisiana; the original members of the coalition would regularly meet in the offices of Louisiana representatives Billy Tauzin and Jimmy Hayes, both of whom had Rodrigue's paintings on their walls (and both of whom later switched to the Republican Party).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Dog_Democrats

[madfloridian]

6. Here is good explanation of Blue Dogs and New Dems...

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/742

Bush requested a meeting that week with Blue Dogs and New Dems

Lists of their members as well. They are the centrist Democratic coalitions. Their worst claim to fame was begging for Haster to bring the horrible bankruptcy bill up for a vote so they could push it through.

[creeksneakers2]

4. In the end there will be no way for them to do it

unless they cut military spending, which is a waste anyway. The DLC is working overtime to keep that from happening.

Balancing the budget is a worthy goal though, and one that would cement Democratic majorities for the near future. With the public sick of Iraq, we could change course and become a nation that plays a smaller role in the world. I think about 80% of the public would support scaling back, especially when they see what the alternatives are.

[gratuitous]

5. We could start with spending on discretionary wars

I think we could find an extra hundred billion or so every year if Bushie and his overrich friends had to finance their own oil grab in the Middle East.

[Bandit]

7. cut off funding for U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

What exactly is in the Defense Budget if it is not funding for the military no matter where on Earth they might be? The money for Iraq is mainly for Halliburton and the other Hundred Thousand American Contractors currently in Iraq. The military is supplied and paid from the Defense Budget so I don't understand their dilema...