Progressive Caucus Calls Emergency Meeting

"Democratic source on Capital Hill tells The Huffington Post that the Congressional Progressive Caucus will hold an "emergency meeting" on Monday to discuss the final deal to raise the nation's debt ceiling.

The meeting will take place at 2:00 p.m. and there will be "a formal vote on the Caucus’ position to the deal." Members have been urged to attend.

Earlier on Sunday, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), a co-chair of the caucus, put out a statement harshly opposing the reported deal.

"This deal trades peoples’ livelihoods for the votes of a few unappeasable right-wing radicals, and I will not support it," the statement read. "Progressives have been organizing for months to oppose any scheme that cuts Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security, and it now seems clear that even these bedrock pillars of the American success story are on the chopping block. Even if this deal were not as bad as it is, this would be enough for me to fight against its passage."

How progressive lawmakers come down in the final vote may be the key to its passage. There are 76 members of the CPC, including one senator (Bernie Sanders). Should House Speaker John Boehner bleed a good chunk of votes from his party -- a perfectly conceivable outcome -- he will be forced to rely heavily on Democratic votes.

Progressives have swallowed their complaints about major pieces of legislation before, including health care reform and the extension of the Bush tax cuts, but they do hold some leverage going into Monday or Tuesday's debt ceiling vote in the House.

How in the world could they even report on that group when they have consistently failed to acknowledge its existence?

This guy knows what he is talking about. It's not a fair deal.

@samsteinhp Sam Stein
breaking: Dem leaders are all in pelosi's office, i'm told. and everyone has signed off on deal. waiting on Boehner.




The Asian Markets! The Asian Markets!

:eyes:

none of whom, unsurprisingly, come from the Progressive Caucus.

Rep Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) is chair of the 78-member House Progressive Caucus. 78 MEMBERS! The Progressive Caucus is the LARGEST caucus in the House!

...leftists, even ... and therefore each one of them only counts as 3/5ths of a member of Congress.

Whereas the self-proclaimed rightwingers, each one of them counts as oh, something like 24/5ths of a member of Congress ... therefore, they are a force to be reckoned with.

Frustration.

When fifty Teabaggie congress people issue a statement - immediately it is headline news. (hell, sometimes all it takes is fifteen.)

But the progressive caucus is always treated, by both major parties, as a mere irritation.

Finally some encouraging news.

K&R

still larger than the all-powerful tea party caucus (52 members). However, since the Black Caucus (42 members) has already said they would not vote for a bill that affects entitlements, if progressive caucus does the same, they might together have some influence, if the Republicans remain fractured.

in Reuters but maybe I'm counting wrong.

http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=71§iontree=2,71

An "emergency" meeting!

Oy vey...

Someone should go explain to the Progressive Caucus the wonderful wonderfulness of giving away your lunch money while not being punched in the stomach right this second. Sure, the punch could come anytime, but you didn't get punched right this second, and that's something to celebrate!

It's happened before.

they tend to have spines...

and I have become so cynical,
that I am suspicious that THIS too is ALL a part of the Kabuki Theater
to maintain the illusion that The People still have some voice in our Party,

...that this is just more theater that will actually produce NOTHING in policy,
but something they can point to to prevent mass defections from the Democratic Party in 2012.

But Anyway,
WooHoo for the Progressive Caucus.
If nothing else, at least somebody is finally standing up and saying the right words.

It's Senator Sanders of course.

only they actually work for the people.

Go Progs! Make them take you seriously too. It's time for a stand.

I can guarantee a trainwreck is coming from this deal. You know why? The ONLY thing the TPers care about is their reckless and idiotic BBA, and the way to get that is to trigger the triggers.

Yes, they'll do it. You can BET on it. (I may look for a way to actually do that, because I KNOW they will.)

The military will blame Obama then for the huge Defense cuts, and I think he'll be facing real threats to his life then. It'll be JFK 2.0.

This whole thing is foolish and dangerous. And not only that, unnecessary.