Sanders tried, but Nussle is the new Budget Director

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) fought for us, but thanks to a load of "bought and paid for" Democrats, Jim Nussle was confirmed yesterday, by a 69-24 margin, as the new Director of the Office of Management and Budget, replacing Rob Portman, who resigned recently to "spend more time with his family".

Nussle, former Representative from Iowa, consistently voted anti-labor and pro big business, and championed huge tax cuts for the wealthy. Sanders called him to account during his Senate confirmation hearing, asking him how he could support a $32 billion tax break for the Walton (Wal-Mart) family, while 9 million children have no health care. He asked Nussle how he can support tax breaks benefitting the richest 300,000 people in this country, when those same 300,000 earn more than the poorest 150 million of us.

Sanders cast the only "no" vote in the confirmation hearing. The Democrats on the committee must have been worried, either about their vacations starting on time or about upsetting their big campaign donors.

Sanders also wrote a terrific article for the Huffington Post explaining all of the reasons he was against Nussle's comfirmation. Read it here.

Bernie Sanders is one of the very few Senators who consistently speaks for the common good of all of us, and isn't scared to point out the tremendous contradictions between the GOP's determination to create and maintain a small class of super-rich Americans and the very real need for programs that can benefit the "average" American. He deserves a place of honor in the hearts of all progressives for speaking the truth without embellishment.

Anyway, Nussle wins, we lose, and he will be Bushes "point man" on budget issues . I know we can count on more "stay the course" when it comes to pampering our aristocracy and screwing the rest of us.

Here are your 23 Democratic friends (NOT!) on this vote: Akaka (HI), Baucus (MT), Bayh (IN), Cantwell (WA), Cardin (MD), Carper (DE), Casey (PA), Durbin (IL), Feingold (WI), Feinstein (CA), Harkin (IA), Kohl (WI), Landrieu (LA), Levin (MI), Lincoln (AR), McCaskill (MO), Murray (WA), Nelson (NE), Pryor (AR), Salazar (CO), Tester (MT), Webb (VA), Wyden (OR).

There are some fairly "good" names on this list of Senators who will vote for "us" more often than not, so consider this vote count as educational--There is not one Democrat who will not sell out the American public when it suits them.

Who do these people really support- You and me? Yeah, right. This vote was just another in a long line that proves that we do indeed have a two-party system- the People party and the Money party, and don't ever forget it.