We Didn't Send You to Congress to be a Blue Dog, Annie

On Friday, Howie Klein had this at Down With Tyranny:

Last week 5 or 6 progressive freshmen called me to warned me that lifelong Republican Patrick Murphy (D-FL) was working all the freshmen for some idiotic statement of "bipartisanship" he had concotted. I mentioned it Thursday and it was made public this morning, much to the delight, no doubt, of Beltway Media Broderists.

Almost no Democrats signed his pathetic, badly crafted letter-- but lots of Republicans did. So disappointing to see Ann Kuster (D-NH) lending her good name to this foolhardy initiative. Most of the rest of the Democrats who signed are typical untrustworthy hacks-- or worse. The only Blue Dog freshman, Pete Gallego (TX) couldn't wait to jump on board. And the only "Democrat" who has a ZERO ProgressivePunch score on crucial votes this session, corporate shill Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ), was right on top of it. (Kirkpatrick, unlike over 100 Republicans voted with Boehner on every single crucial roll call this year, a breathtaking record of achievement.)

 Digby also picked up the story, and included highlights of the  Blue Dog letter, and this:

I can't tell you how it hurts me to see Ann Kuster join that group of right wing weirdos. In fact, it's a pretty big betrayal of the progressive movement that supported who through very tough races. But I'm going to guess that the Villagers will be thrilled to frequently feature all these people as the only grown-ups in the room and laud them for "standing up" to the so-called extremists. Of course, the only "extremists" they are standing up to are progressives who don't believe that we should "reform" Social Security and Medicare by cutting benefits or enact tax reform in order to lower rates. Or any of the rest of the drivel in that letter. 

Digby nails it. This is a huge betrayal of all of the supporters who worked so hard AND gave so much money to Kuster's campaign. No one expected they'd be sending a progressive to Washington only to have her jump into bed with Blue Dogs.

Sadly for us all, it gets worse. Today Annie had a piece in the Sunday Nashua Telegraph, warning us of the dangers of the sequester.

A recent study from George Mason University projected that almost half of all job losses stemming from sequestration would come from small businesses, the engine of growth and job creation in our economy. That same study put the potential job losses here in New Hampshire at more than 6,300. 

and

Cuts to defense spending also would compromise the strength of our military and threaten jobs at the Pease Air National Guard Base, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, and defense suppliers throughout New Hampshire. 

Let’s be perfectly clear: We need to cut spending and get our fiscal house in order. But any approach to deficit reduction that fails to distinguish between wasteful spending we can’t afford to keep and critical investments we can’t afford to cut would undermine our economy and security. 

Fortunately, there’s a better way forward. Rather than blindly slicing across the board, both parties can work together on a balanced, long-term plan that would not only avoid the sequester, but also responsibly reduce the deficit, spur job creation and protect investments in the middle class.

George Mason University is heavily funded by the Koch Brothers. The university houses the Mercatus Center, which is where the bulk of those Koch dollars go. Mercatus is a libertarian economic think tank. Mercatus has ties to NH in the form of Affiliated Scholar Jason Sorens. Jason Sorens is the founder of the Free State Project, the group of libertarians moving to NH to take over and dismantle our state government. Any economic study coming out of GMU is making Atlas stop shrugging and do a happy dance.

We cannot cut our way to prosperity. The foundation of the US economy is consumer spending. The only way to turn it around is to get the millions of people who are still unemployed and those who are underemployed back to work. Then we should talk about controlling deficits.

That  Ann Kuster has chosen to ally herself with those whose idea of "balanced, long term plans" includes cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid is deeply disturbing.

The middle class is an endangered species. I don't see anything in Kuster's commentary that will do a single thing to turn that around, or get anyone back to work. It's just more of the same. Cutting the safety net will do nothing to create jobs - it's just a recipe for creating a lot more human misery down here on the ground.

Kuster would do well to remember why Paul Hodes lost his last election. When voters are faced with a choice between a real Republican and a Democrat who sounds like one, they always pick the real thing.

We didn't send you to Congress to be a Blue Dog, Annie.