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With the 18 members of the Catfood Commission expected to vote on the Simpson-Bowles draft report on Friday, many of the members are stepping forward to declare their positions. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) come out as a firmly against the proposal, while Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) said he was leaning no. According to Politico:
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the incoming House Budget Committee chairman, said he won’t vote in favor of the recommendations of President Barack Obama’s deficit panel.
Ryan said Thursday criticized the group’s recommendations because they don’t do enough to address the rising costs of health care. [...]
Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) said he’s leaning against voting for the plan because it “accelerates” the implementation of health care reform.
“I think Bowles and Simpson deserve a lot of credit for producing a plan. But I can make the argument, frankly I think they — not necessarily intentionally — but they have accelerated the arrival of Obamacare,” he said Thursday afternoon.
The Senate Republicans, on the other hand, are, as a whole, more open to the commission’s proposal. During a joint press conference, both Senators Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) said they would vote for the plan. In their joint statement, the Senators said about the need to reduce the deficit, “everyone in America should be prepared to sacrifice.”
They irony of Coburn and Crapo saying that while they fight diligently to keep the tax rate of millionaires low, at a cost to the government of around $700 billion, shouldn’t be lost on anyone. Just another reminder that this talk about “deficit concerns” is used as a great excuse for class warfare by the rich against the working class.
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With Ryan now a definite “No” and Hensarling leaning “No”, it does look as though this miserable “report” will fall clearly short of the 14 votes needed to pass, and will lose whatever few shreds of credibility it might still have had left. Hopefully the details of the “report” will soon fade into well-deserved obscurity, and its sole real significance will be made clear in two lists of names: the list of those who disgraced themselves by agreeing to serve on this Orwellian attempt to rationalize the evisceration of the social safety net, and the list of those who disgraced themselves yet again by voting to approve its final “report” after it had formally ceased to exist.
Regardless of Commish Members votes, Obama’s mission is accomplished; move the goal posts.
By that I mean there is now some bullshit commission report for the Senate to point at, and say “Well it was O’s commisio that came up with these ideas. Let’s look at some of them.”
And voila, new menu of choices – with catfood prominent.