In her first official vote as a member of the 116th Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) intends to send a message to the country – a very stupid message.
From The Federalist:
On Wednesday, incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) faced a potential revolt from within her own party. Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and several progressive allies threatened to vote against the rules package governing congressional procedures on the first day of the new Congress Thursday, because of proposed changes they believe would threaten their ability to pass single-payer health care. …
Ocasio-Cortez and her allies object to Pelosi’s attempt to reinstate Pay-as-You-Go (PAYGO) rules for the new 116th Congress. Put simply, those rules would require that any legislation the House considers not increase the deficit over five- and ten-year periods. In short, this policy would mean that any bill proposing new mandatory spending or revenue reductions must pay for those changes via offsetting tax increases and/or spending cuts—hence the name.
Under Republican control, the House had a policy requiring spending increases—but not tax cuts—to be paid for. Pelosi would overturn that policy and apply PAYGO to both the spending and the revenue side of the ledger.
Progressives object to Pelosi’s attempt to constrain government spending, whether in the form of additional fiscal “stimulus” or a single-payer health system:
Tomorrow I will also vote No on the rules package, which is trying to slip in #PAYGO.
PAYGO isn’t only bad economics, as @RoKhanna explains; it’s also a dark political maneuver designed to hamstring progress on healthcare+other leg.
We shouldn’t hinder ourselves from the start. https://t.co/WW3UaBs7vh
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 2, 2019
However, Pelosi’s spokesman countered with a statement indicating that the progressives’ move “is a vote to let Mick Mulvaney make across-the-board cuts.” Mulvaney heads the Office of Management and Budget, which would implement any sequester under statutory PAYGO.
Regardless of what the new House decides regarding its own procedures for considering bills, Pay-as-You-Go remains on the federal statute books. Democrats re-enacted it in 2010, just prior to Obamacare’s passage. If legislation Congress passed violates those statutory PAYGO requirements (as opposed to any internal House rules), it will trigger mandatory spending reductions via the sequester—the “across-the-board cuts” to which Pelosi’s spokesman referred. …
Here’s how Twitter reacted:
The GOP has never once been held accountable, and they're far more effective because of it.
"Budget deficits are bad" is a conservative principle, and one with iffy basis in economic reality. Why should the Left adhere to it?
— ꙮwꙮ (@StoopidTallKid) January 2, 2019
https://twitter.com/lifeon_the_road/status/1080500423948230657
https://twitter.com/jlindy/status/1080555318705295361
https://twitter.com/RobtPDavison/status/1080498012806238208
https://twitter.com/SaladScissor/status/1080610826036412417
https://twitter.com/bowiegrrl11/status/1080762713318539264
If you can tweet house bill numbers to us, I, and others, will back you by asking our groups .@IndivisibleTeam to have constituents call their reps. The bill numbers are kinda essential when we make the calls. Thanks .@AOC We have your back.
— Doreen M Dupont MD (@DrDoreenD) January 2, 2019
She may be a pain in the side of the Democrat Party for right now, but after today, and as the newest member of the United States Congress, Ocasio-Cortez has declared war on traditional America.
