In addition to voting for the "porkulus" bill known as the stimulus package, today Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin voted for the $410 billion omnibus spending package favored by House Democratic leadership. Twenty Democrats voted against the bill, including (it appears) many of the Blue Dog Coalition. It seems Rep. Herseth-Sandlin is out of touch with her own Coalition. This bill represents an 8% increase in discretionary spending and contains 9,000 congressional earmarks. Here is Blue Dog Democrat Gene Taylor taking President Obama to task for his proposed budget. We are still waiting for the deficit spending Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin actually opposes. FYI, here's a nice run-down of the enormous tax hikes and spending increases contained in Obama's budget, released today.
Meanwhile, Tim Johnson is perhaps showing that he is in his last term in Congress by becoming a typical liberal in his voting. Johnson was one of only eleven senators opposing Sen. Jim DeMint's bill to prevent the FCC from imposing the misnamed "Fairness Doctrine," a regulation widely seen as an attack on conservative talk radio. Johnson also voted for a bill giving Washington D.C. a voting representative in the House. Currently the District has a non-voting delegate. This provision is clearly unconstitutional and is simply a power grab by the Democratic party. This is one step towards giving the District statehood, which guarentees another Democrat House member and two Democrat Senators. Naturally, John Thune was on the opposite side of Johnson on these votes.
Update: Ann Althouse: "I don't know how even to articulate an argument that it's constitutional to give a vote to a D.C. representative in Congress."
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