PAY-GO

Nancy Pelosi by Nancy OhanianImmediately after Pelosi took over as Speaker, she and her leadership team insisted on ramming through a rule that will likely cripple any big-thinking progressive proposals like the Green New Deal, Medicare-For-All, free public college, etc.

In the piece Saturday about the Congressional Progressive Caucus idea of Pay-Go legislation rather than having opposed it as a rule, I neglected to mention how hard it would have been to go back and fight for the negotiated package the CPC had decided to prioritize-- the Medicare-For-All debate agreement perhaps being the most important p

You can't out-progressive Pramila Jayapal. Her vote for Pay-Go Thursday evening made me go back and reexamine my own analysis of Pay-Go.

First came the vote for Speaker. Pelosi, the lesser evil got 220 votes and Kevin McCarthy, the greater evil not 192 votes. That leaves 22 members of Congress who voted for neither. A man who can't wait to prove he's the biggest moron in the new Congress, aggressively reactionary Blue Dog Jeff Van Drew (NJ), shouted out "NO," which doesn't mean anything in this instance.