Dispirited liberals fumed Monday over the deal to raise the debt ceiling that would cut deeply across the government, include no new tax revenue from wealthy Americans and would not provide any additional stimulus for a lagging economy.
Most of all, they lamented President Obama’s failure to anticipate and overcome the leverage exerted by House Republicans who threatened to force a national default.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi urged her colleagues to support the latest debt deal in order to prevent seniors and veterans from getting stuck with the consequences of no deal. (Aug. 1)
Explore the House vote on the compromise debt-ceiling bill.
“It’s a surrender to Republican extortion,” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), who voted against the deal. “It’s one thing to say we want this, we don’t want that as part of negotiations. It’s another to say we will destroy the country and the economy if you don’t do what we want.”
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) said he, too, was voting no because of the “dangerous precedent” by Republican demands. But most offensive, he said, were the cuts unmatched by any new revenue. “My constituents are suffering; they’ve lost their jobs and their homes, and now to cut the very programs that could have provided them with support while the rich are given a pass — it’s ridiculous.”
The ire burned hottest online, where liberal groups such as MoveOn.org mobilized opposition and Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II (D-Mo.) tweeted that the deal was “a sugar-coated Satan sandwich. If you lift the bun, you will not like what you see.”
The White House dispatched Vice President Biden to lobby congressional liberals, and by day’s end some were reluctantly coming round. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) led the way, telling ABC’s Diane Sawyer that she would support the deal despite it being a Satan sandwich “with some Satan fries on the side.”
Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.) said he would support the deal only to prevent the “arson” that Republicans were engaging in with the credit limit. “These are lunatic demands, and I need to compromise because that’s an act of sanity,” he said.
Off the Hill, liberals searched for silver linings but came up with little more than the consolation that some of the particulars were not as damaging as they could have been.
Liberal policy experts decried the absence of the upfront economic stimulus measures that Obama had pressed for, such as an extension of the payroll tax cut and expanded unemployment benefits that are set to expire at the end of the year.
The combination of cutting billions in spending and not providing any stimulus, they said, would undermine the recovery, a setback both for millions of unemployed and the Democrats’ 2012 election prospects.
“If anyone involved in this deal cares about jobs, it’s hard to see,” said Lawrence Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute. He also wondered how Obama expected to find room for his promised investments in research and infrastructure following a deal that so tightly constrains future spending. “It’s hard to see the president ‘winning the future,’ ” he said.
The deal calls for $900 billion in cuts over the next decade, one third of that from the Pentagon and the rest from other agencies. It also calls for a 12-person bipartisan congressional committee to recommend an additional $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion in savings by Nov. 23.
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