Cong. Moran (D-VA): Moran Votes No on Fiscal Cliff Legislation

[spooky3]

http://www.arlnow.com/

by Katie Pyzyk | January 2, 2013 at 9:50 am | 128 views | 14 Comments

(snip) But Moran spoke on the House floor last night in opposition of the legislation, contending it doesn’t create a permanent solution" “We set up three more fiscal cliffs. We’re going to have to deal with the debt ceiling, we’re going to have to deal with the continuing resolution expiration and we’re going to have to deal with the sequester,” Moran said on the House floor. “We’re going to look back on this night and regret it, notwithstanding the fact that 95 percent of us apparently will vote for it.”

(snip) "Unfortunately the bill before us today is wholly inadequate. It leaves our country with three more ‘fiscal cliffs’ to negotiate over the next three months. There’s no clarity as to how we preserve the full faith and credit of the U.S. by raising the statutory debt limit, the economically devastating sequester is delayed two months but remains in full effect, and there’s no direction as to how we will fund the government for the remainder of the year when the continuing resolution runs out in March. Each of these deadlines represents a major political battle in which nearly 40 percent of Northern Virginia’s economy in terms of federal contracts and federal employees will be on the chopping block. Our leverage to strike a balanced deal will only be weaker in those coming battles following passage of this bill.

"Furthermore, I question the wisdom of permanently locking in revenue levels which are far too low. This includes an estate tax structure which provides a massive tax cut for a small minority of the richest Americans at the cost $369 billion dollars, in exchange for only a temporary extension of important programs that help low and middle class Americans.

“I am deeply concerned by the long term consequences of this hastily crafted agreement, both in terms of our ability to invest in our priorities, such as educating and training future generations, and in terms of the way we govern this country. For these reasons, I cannot in good conscience support this legislation."

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I agree with him about leverage. The Republicans may look as if they are in disarray but they will keep coming back to re-fight the unresolved issues. I don't agree with him about his implicit wish to protect all the defense contracts but do understand that he has a dual role here - to do what's right for the country and to represent his constituents' interests. I believe the military can be cut substantially (Lockheed Martin, Boeing, unnecessary weapons and IT service providers, can take cuts as can many of our bases, etc.) and that this could be done far less painfully than cuts to other parts of the general budget or SS or Medicare. If you go to Wikipedia's page on the military budget, it is appalling to see that audits can't even be completed because accounting of all of this spending can't be tracked.