Guns and Butter

I haven't been doing too much blogging lately because work has been so crazy.   The House is in recess and budget resolution talks need to be had with the members we can get to so we can explain that we want the final budget to look more like the House version than the Senate's.   After that it's a push to get the funding right during the appropriations process.  Tax Day is coming, which means holding events that highlight the need for fully-funded human needs programs instead of tax breaks for the super-rich.   Plus we're working on getting our used book and clothing store off the ground. ...

So it's a madhouse and there isn't time for blogging but if you want to read more about what I do, pick up a little paper I like to call the New York Times, whose own Francis X. Clines is on the recess road with Congressman Patrick Murphy (PA-08):

In the buzz of the roadhouse, the scene suggested a mini-America: There were more drinkers at the bar ignoring the congressman and watching a ballgame than constituents buttonholing this curious representative who used to lead convoys down Ambush Alley in Baghdad. This day, Mr. Murphy was all diligence, listening to old-timers describe Medicare snafus in tedious detail over beers. “You have my word I’ll try and help,” he promised as his aides took notes.

He did discover a few things from Robin Stelly, a constituent who grilled him on his vote against the domestic budget, which he cast as the newest Blue Dog Democrat, part of the caucus that aims to cut spending.

“I learned the lessons of the ’60s, where I saw the domestic program torpedoed by foreign entanglements,” said Ms. Stelly, a field organizer for PA Action, a nonpartisan advocacy organization dedicated to protecting social welfare programs.

“He is The Guy in Congress on the war,” Ms. Stelly conceded. She happens to run weekly vigils against the war but thinks her congressman better keep an eye out for the government basics that national recovery will eventually require.

Indeed I do. 

Comments

[Thomas Nephew]

Great work, Robin! And some well-deserved recognition of that work.

[mick arran]

Da Big Time!

Glorioski, Sandy! Rubbing elbows with the Great Grey Lady?

So tell me:

*Does David Brooks really wear a toupee?

*Can you see LaDowd's cloven hoofs sticking out of her Bruno Magli hiking boots?

*Is it true that Tom Friedman never eats breakfast because he can't decide what to eat?

Dish, girl. Then I'll tell you how cool I think you are.