Democrats More Interested in Fundraising than Nation’s Future

With appointment of Van Hollen, Clyburn, and Becerra, House Dems follow the lead of the Senate in undermining seriousness of Congressional “Super Committee."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi announced her appointments to the "Super Committee," created by the debt deal, tasked with reining in $1.5 trillion in federal spending. Following the leadership of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, these political appointments mimic tax-and-spenders' efforts to prevent significant spending reform in Congress.

With the appointment of former DCCC Chairman Van Hollen, Clyburn, and Becerra, House Democrats, like the Senate counterparts appear to be aiming to undermine any attempt at serious reform in the Joint Committee. Democrats have now chosen the former top fundraiser for Democrats in the House and current top fundraiser, DSCC Chair Patty Murray, in the Senate to lead Congress's efforts to deal with the country's fiscal mess.

Democrats are clearly more interested in turning the next three months into campaign contributions than making the tough choices about our nation's fiscal future. As Politico points out, Representative Becerra wasted no time in seeking to bring in some campaign cash merely two hours after Pelosi's announcement, asking $1500/plate for a fundraiser at the end of the month.

In 2010, after the biggest Congressional Republican victory since Grover Cleveland’s administration, one would think that Congressional Democrats would be willing to get serious about reform in Washington. Sadly it seems that this is simply not true. It seems for them, that using their position on the Super Committee to raise a few thousand dollars is more important than putting our country on a path to prosperity. With the debt deal specifying that the absence of a comprehensive $1.5 trillion deficit reduction plan will not give the President enough borrowing authority to go past the next election, the Democrats’ purely political appointments must raise some eyebrows; if they decide to use the committee as a campaign stump instead of a serious policy tool, are they trying to throw their president’s re-election under the bus? Only time will tell.