Grassroots progressive groups are beginning to chime in with reactions to House and Senate Budget resolution, and they’re all pretty positive. Roger Hickey, co-director of Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) said, “The economic recovery package and this budget are needed to begin moving us in a dramatically different direction. This budget represents transformational change.”
For a time, anyhow, CAF had dedicated itself to opposing the obstructive efforts of conservative Democrats in the Senate, and they may be encouraged by the fact that only two such Democrats (Evan Bayh and Ben Nelson) voted against the bill.
On the other side of the spectrum, I spoke earlier today with Matt Bennett, vice president for public affairs at Third Way. He said “Third Way strongly supports the budget, and we were delighted that it passed last night…we think the budget is a solid blueprint for economic recovery, fundamental reform and long-term fiscal responsibility.”
Third Way has been broadly supportive of the efforts of the Senate centrists, most of whom voted with progressives to pass the budget. There’s one interesting exception though. Bennett says, “we very respectfully disagree with Senator Bayh”, who serves as one of Third Way’s honorary co-chairs.
Late update: In the wake of the House and Senate budgets passing with the support of most Blue Dogs and the Moderate Dems Working Group, MoveOn is making it official–the group will continue its campaign against conservative Democrats. According to Greg Sargent:
MoveOn officials argue that the groups ran ads and calls pressuring key moderate, wavering Dems who eventually backed Obama’s budget, including Senator Mark Warner, Rep Baron Hill and others. While it’s unclear whether the ads swung their votes, MoveOn officials argue, they certainly didn’t hurt the cause.
Most of the liberal activists groups I’ve spoken with seem to be in something like “wait and see” mode vis-Ã -vis conservative Democrats. MoveOn appears to be the first to come forward to say they’ll defy Democratic party leaders and continue their efforts.
As a caveat, it’s important to note that conservative Senate Democrats accrue much of their power from the fact that most major legislation is subjected to the filibuster. The budget resolution, by contrast, is not–and if it was, Bayh and Nelson would have been well positioned to dramatically change its terms.
