Dems Defeat Bill To Freeze Poor People

It's quite a day up on the Hill. Democrats must've been eating their shredded wheat recently because suddenly they have a severe attack of cojones.

Earlier, I posted about Senators' demand that big oil fat cats be recalled and requestioned - this time under oath. Now House Democrats have, according to AP, defeated a spending bill which would have slashed funding for healthcare, education and emergency heating assistance.

The 224-209 vote against the $142.5 billion spending bill disrupted plans by Republican leaders to finish up work on this year's spending bills and cast doubt on whether they would have the votes to pass a major budget-cutting bill also on the day's agenda.

Democrats, unanimous in opposing the legislation, said it included the first cut in education funding in a decade and slashed spending for several health care programs. "It betrays our nation's values and its future," said House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland. "It is neither compassionate, conservative nor wise."

The bill cut funding for Health and Human Services programs by $1 billion as well as reducing spending on education and on the Dept. of Labor. Democrats were aided by the votes of 22 Republicans who bucked their party's trend of rob from the poor to give to the rich.

Scott Shields writes:

Cutting $1 billion from HHS hardly seems reasonable when the news has gone all avian flu, all the time. Likewise, the Republicans wanted to hold Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) funding steady, even in the face of soaring energy costs. That's one case where freezing assistance would literally have the effect of freezing poor people. And lest you think any of this has to do with fiscal responsibility or belt tightening, these budget cuts are being proposed to help pay for $60 billion in capital gains and dividend tax cuts. In other words, these were cuts in social spending for the benefit of wealthy investors.

But Josh Marshall has a word of warning.

Republicans control the body. So they can just stick this stuff back in the big omnibus bill at the end of the year when everything comes down to just one vote. Presumeably, then, these moderates will feel obliged to vote for the whole thing.

Doesn't this set these twenty-two moderates up for one of those juicy, 'I voted for it before I voted against it' moments?

Of course, it does.

And the same thing applies to the ANWR stuff from last week and a bunch of these other recent legislative defeats. Somebody needs to compile the lists of who these Reps are, what they voted against today and keep the list on hand to see if they vote for it later this year.