We Are Really Lowering the Bar for Rebellions These Days

Tom Williams/Congressional Quarterly/Newscom via ZUMA

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From the Washington Post:

Liberal revolt threatens to derail House Democrats on their first day in charge

House Democratic leaders faced the prospect of a liberal rebellion on their first day in charge after prominent Democrats said they would oppose a package of rules changes endorsed by Nancy Pelosi, the incoming speaker.

Holy cow! A liberal rebellion. What’s going on?

Rep. Ro Khanna (Calif.) and Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) said they would vote against the rules changes on Thursday — in the second vote Democrats will take in the majority, after electing Pelosi (D-Calif.) — because of the inclusion of a fiscal measure known as “pay as you go,” or PAYGO….Beyond Khanna and Ocasio-Cortez, however, opposition to the proposal appeared muted Wednesday. Several high-profile freshman Democrats — Reps.-elect Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.) and Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) — have not taken a public position….The co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), said they would support the overall rules package despite their opposition to PAYGO, citing a commitment from House leaders that the provision “will not be an impediment to advancing key progressive priorities” in the new Congress.

So…two Democrats have announced they’ll vote against the rules package. Is that it? It’s not much of a rebellion, is it? Especially since it’s a purely symbolic vote that has no effect on the actual statute that implements PAYGO.

Just for the record, I’m all in favor of ditching PAYGO. Republicans ignore it every time they want to pass a tax cut for the rich, so the hell with it. It’s nothing but a one-way straitjacket at this point.

POSTSCRIPT: I do want to add one thing: this story demonstrates that Ocasio-Cortez and other progressives like Khanna are very good at getting attention. I mean this in an entirely positive way. Getting attention is a big part of politics, and they’re doing it. They just need to be careful not to overdo it at this point. If they end up picking lots of fights and then losing them all, they’ll squander their ability to keep the media’s attention.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

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