Huffington Post: Kirsten Gillibrand Opposes the Obama Agenda

[Ichingcarpenter]

OK, I took liberty with the title, but this struck me yesterday with her speech
on taxes and balanced budgets during these economic times that made me a little apprehensive about her. She also put President Obama on hold when he called her, though I totally
understood. Anyway here you go : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lawrence-odonnell/new-yorks-next-senator-op_b_160497.html


New York's Next Senator: Opposed to the Obama Agenda

By Lawerence O'Donnell


The accidental governor of New York ended his relentless daily display of incompetence in choosing a successor to Senator Hillary Clinton by offering this praise for his choice, Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand: "She also introduced legislation that would require that our federal budget be balanced annually. Our state budget is balanced annually, our federal budget is not."

The governor obviously has no idea that this means he has just delivered a Democratic senator who is committed to voting against the first Obama bill to come her way--the stimulus package that will push the federal budget at least 800 billion dollars farther away from balance. Indeed, the Gillibrand simple-minded devotion to balancing the federal budget above all else means that she must oppose everything on the Obama agenda. Everything President Obama wants to do costs money, money that the federal government doesn't have. Obama, as he made crystal clear in the campaign, plans to do it with deficit spending, something that Congresswoman Gillibrand opposes and something we now discover the governor of New York opposes even though New York state will be one of the biggest beneficiaries of that spending.

Introducing "legislation that would require that our federal budget be balanced annually" is as childish as Congressional behavior can get. If Gillibrand had her way, Obama would have no tools to use to get us out of this recession/depression. Nor would we be able to continue paying soldiers in Iraq or buy the jet fuel to fly them home or enact any version of health care reform.

All the adults in Congress agree that we need a deficit-financed stimulus package--the Democrat v. Republican disagreements are only over the precise size and shape of the package. How long will it take Kirsten Gillibrand to grow up?