While not crashing and burning quite as epically as President Obama’s budget — which failed on a 2 to 413 vote — the official Democratic budget alternative by Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland went down hard on a vote of 163 to 261. The Van Hollen budget contains $1.5 trillion in tax hikes and never balances. Perhaps most significantly, it contains a two-page love letter to Obamacare with zero mention of any problems or a need for any fixes. In other words, a vote for this budget was a vote to raise taxes and endorse Obamacare exactly as-is.
There were 31 Democrats who were uncomfortable enough with that to vote NO. They were:
Barber
D
AZ
No
Barrow (GA)
D
GA
No
Bera (CA)
D
CA
No
Brownley (CA)
D
CA
No
Bustos
D
IL
No
Cooper
D
TN
No
Costa
D
CA
No
DelBene
D
WA
No
Duckworth
D
IL
No
Enyart
D
IL
No
Foster
D
IL
No
Gallego
D
TX
No
Garcia
D
FL
No
Himes
D
CT
No
Kind
D
WI
No
Kirkpatrick
D
AZ
No
Kuster
D
NH
No
Lipinski
D
IL
No
Loebsack
D
IA
No
Maffei
D
NY
No
Maloney, Sean
D
NY
No
Matheson
D
UT
No
McIntyre
D
NC
No
Murphy (FL)
D
FL
No
Peters (CA)
D
CA
No
Peterson
D
MN
No
Rahall
D
WV
No
Ruiz
D
CA
No
Sanchez, Loretta
D
CA
No
Schneider
D
IL
No
Sinema
D
AZ
No
Conspicuously absent from this list are both House Democrats presently campaigning for a promotion to the United States Senate.
Indeed, both Bruce Braley of Iowa and Gary Peters of Michigan were among the 161 Democrats who pressed the AYE button and endorsed Obamacare with no fixes along with all the other liberal policies in the Van Hollen budget, which for all its tax hikes still never balances.
As Joe Biden taught me: “Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I will tell you what you value.”
With their votes for the Van Hollen budget, Braley and Peters both proved that all of their claims on the campaign trail about “fixing Obamacare” are just another lie from the same people who told us we could keep our plans.
Braley and Peters voted for $1.5 trillion tax hike, Obamacare with no fixes
