Cheri Bustos Votes to Support Millionaires, Billionaires and Big Oil

I just read the Congressional Progressive Caucus "Back to Work" budget. You can read that here: CPC Budget

On the campaign trail we heard Cheri Bustos say the following would be her principles in Congress:

1. Ensure that millionaires and billionaires pay more of their fair share of taxes.
2. End tax breaks and incentives for big oil companies and companies that ship jobs overseas.
3. Protect Social Security and Medicare.
4. Cut down on waste, fraud and abuse.

If those were her principles, then why did she vote AGAINST the Congressional Progressive Caucus budget? According to their website, their budget would do the following:

1. Enact a Fair Individual Tax:

• Immediately allows Bush tax cuts to expire for families earning over $250K

• Higher tax rates for millionaires and billionaires (from 45% to 49%)

• Taxes income from investments the same as income from wages


2. Enact a Fair Corporate Tax:

• Ends corporate tax bias toward moving jobs and profits overseas 

• Enacts a financial transactions tax

• Reduces deductions for corporate jets, meals, and entertainment 


3. Protect Health Care:

• No benefit cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security 

• Reduces health care costs by adopting a public option, negotiating drug prices, and reducing waste and fraud


By voting against this budget, it's safe to say that Cheri Bustos isn't really against low taxes for millionaires and billionaires. It's safe to say that she's okay with tax breaks for big oil companies. She's also open to cutting social security and medicare. She doesn't prioritize cutting government waste. She clearly doesn't think that tax breaks for companies that outsource are that big of a deal either, otherwise she would have voted for this bill.

Cheri should explain why she didn't support this bill. Exactly what was in it that she disagreed with?

At the bare minimum, the local media in her district should be asking these questions.

Rep. Cheri Bustos: Budget Nihilist

From Wiki:

Nihilist may refer to:

• one who believes existence has no objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value, see nihilism

I recently stumbled upon this entry from RedState.com: Rep. Bill Owens: Budget Nihilist .

It said exactly my thoughts regarding my own member of Congress, Cheri Bustos.

From the talking points we heard on the campaign trail and her family history, blue dogs like myself knew that Cheri Bustos wasn't interested in actually fixing any of the problems in DC.

With her father being the chief of staff to high profile U.S. Senators and one of the biggest lobbyists in the country, we knew she was only interested in getting elected and then re-elected.

That's why when she had the chance to support a budget to fix America's deficit and fund transportation projects that our district desperately needs, she took the stance of a budget nihilist.

Out of the 4 Democrat budgets and 2 Republican budgets, Cheri Bustos voted against all of them.

By not submitting her own plan to Congress and rejecting all proposed budgets, Cheri Bustos told our district that a budget doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter if America gets out of debt. It doesn't matter if we fix our roads or bridges. It doesn't matter if the Rock Island Arsenal employees get sequestered. It simply doesn't matter.

If she believed it mattered, then she would have voted for a plan or submitted her own. But rather than putting our district -- no, no, OUR FAMILIES who depend on jobs, defense, and transportation ABOVE her re-election plans.

Phil Hare didn't care and Cheri Bustos doesn't either.

Bustos' First 3 Bills Have 0% Chance of Passing

So the fabulous Rep. Cheri Bustos has now introduced 3 bills since her inauguration in January. Problem is...according to Govtrack.us, they all have a 0% chance of passing Congress and 2 of the 3 have only a 1% chance of making it out of committee...

What's funny...Bustos had this to say about Bobby Schilling when he had only been sworn in for 5 months:

"My problem with Bobby Schilling is that he has yet to pass a single bill, a single bill. I don't think he's even passed a single bill out of committee yet."--Cheri Bustos at her campaign announcement in June 2011.

What's funnier...Schilling actually did pass legislation within his first 5 months...Bustos just wasn't familiar with how Congress works. Instead of passing a bill directly out of committee, Schilling instead positioned himself on the Armed Services conference committee and included 3 of his first bills into the National Defense Authorization Act of 2011, which was signed into law by President Obama. How a freshman Congressman managed to pass legislation without having babysat for one of the most powerful Senators is a question only Cheri Bustos can answer.

Will Bustos pass a bill by June? We'll see. But right now, it looks like she has a 0% chance.