I've long maintained that the Blue Dog caucus is basically a frat of white Southern men, with 88% of the caucus white and 88% men. The Blue Dogs themselves argue that the group is dedicated to balanced budgets and PAYGO rules, as the group says on its website: "The Coalition has been particularly active on fiscal issues, relentlessly pursuing a balanced budget and then protecting that achievement from politically popular "raids" on the budget."
The fiscally conservative "Blue Dog" coalition of Congressmen is ready to support president-elect Barack Obama's deficit-financed stimulus package because of the deep national economic crisis, coalition member 4th District Rep. Mike Ross, D-Prescott., told the Political Animals Club of Northwest Arkansas on Thursday.
"I'm still a stickler for pay-go -- pay as you go -- for new mandated spending for ongoing government programs, but this stimulus package is an emergency," Ross said in an interview after speaking to the breakfast meeting at the Fayetteville Clarion Hotel.
The Blue Dogs used to make exceptions only for hundreds of billions of dollars in national security spending and wars and stuff, so now that they are making an exception for everything else, I think we can officially call their side of the argument on fiscal responsibility officially lost.
Now, I do appreciate the fact that the Blue Dogs have conceded that their stated reason for being is completely irrelevant to anything, but here's a suggestion to the caucus. If it's ok to spend a trillion dollars as long as it's an emergency, then take that stupid debt clock off your website. I do appreciate that you have conceded the ideological argument that government has an important role in a progressive society, but as long as you keep that clock on there, people might begin to think you're just a social organization dedicated to furthering the cause of conservative white men and corporate PACs in the Democratic Party.
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