By Josh Richman
Oakland Tribune
© Copyright 2011, Bay Area News Group

Posted: 08/01/2011 03:17:10 PM PDT

Several Bay Area members of Congress refused Monday to vote for the debt ceiling and deficit reduction deal reached by President Barack Obama and congressional leaders, while others said they held their noses to support it.

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, said she couldn't vote for the "tragic" deal.

Raising the debt ceiling is routine stewardship to which deficit reduction never should've been attached, she said. "The poor, low income, working poor and middle income people are going to take a hit on this. It's (House Speaker John) Boehner's and (Senate Minority Leader Mitch) McConnell's bill. They did it, they wanted these cuts, they wanted no revenue enhancements, so let them vote for it."

Boehner, R-Ohio, is assuring his supporters that the special commission the deal creates to find more deficit reduction later this year won't consider any revenue increases. The White House was disputing that Monday, but "it sets the stage for what's to come," Lee said. "We'll be right back where we are today in November and December."

Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, said he voted against the "very harmful" bill because "it's going to have a very adverse impact on our ability to get the economy growing again."

"I view this basically as the day America made a decision it wasn't going to keep reinvesting in (itself)," he said, as discretionary funding for everything from education to environmental protection to job creation gets cut. It's foolish for politicians to talk about restoring America's world leadership and competitiveness "when you have this kind of disinvestment," he said.

"You whet the appetite of the Tea Party with this, this is a big victory for them and horrible for the nation," Miller said, and he doubts the new commission will do much better later this year. "I've seen a lot of commissions, I haven't seen many results."

Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose, who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus budget task force, issued a statement saying he supports avoiding default but "cannot support this bill unless I am certain that it includes protections for the most vulnerable and the middle class."

America's middle-class working families deserve more than cuts in education, transportation, bridges and waterways and protections for our environment, he said. But Republicans refused to close loopholes for oil companies, end tax breaks for corporate jets and sunset the worst of the Bush tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.

"Democrats are working in good faith to avert a crisis manufactured by Republican leadership," Honda said. "We are willing to do this because a default by the United States would devastate working families."

Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, at a news conference with fellow Progressive Caucus members, said she would stick to the promise she made Saturday "that I wouldn't vote for anything worse than the Reid compromise, and this is worse. I won't hold my nose again. I will not vote for this bill.

"This is not a balanced approach. It doesn't ask for shared sacrifice," she said. "It puts virtually the entire burden on working families and the middle class while asking nothing from billionaires, millionaires and companies that send jobs overseas. "... I can't believe something as routine as a debt ceiling increase is being used to extort $2.4 trillion in cuts from investments that the American people need."

Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, voted against it too, issuing a statement in which he called it "the wrong answer to the problems our country faces." Although relieved the threat of default is lifted, he said, the deal "comes at a price to wage earners and seniors" by opening the door "to harmful cuts to Medicare, national security programs, and critical services for the American people."

Reps. Pete Stark, D-Fremont, and Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, also voted against it, while Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, voted for it.

But Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, said he voted for the deal "because it had to be done. We had to deal with this debt limit, a manufactured crisis but nonetheless a crisis."

He said he'd demanded all along that Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security benefits be protected, and this deal does that.

"We didn't get the revenues and that's unfortunate but such is the nature of a compromise," he said. "I think the commission has very real opportunity. Certainly from our house, the three Democrats are going to be very strongly in support of putting together a balanced package, one that will include revenues, and I think the Senate will do the same."

Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, said she too voted for the deal only to avoid a catastrophic default. "While I'm very disappointed that the plan is not a balanced one, including closing corporate tax loopholes and raising revenue, I accept the fact that compromise is necessary in order to protect our country," she said. "It has been inexcusable for some Members of the House to have created this extended crisis which has raised the anxiety of my constituents, angered others, and caused confidence to plummet. It never had to be this way."

Both of California's U.S. Senators said they'll vote for the deal when their chamber takes it up Tuesday.

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., called it "far from perfect, but the alternative -- to default and slip into a second recession -- would be calamitous." She said she'll push for a more balanced approach this fall, and still sees "the absolute necessity of letting the Bush tax cuts expire for upper income earners at the end of 2012."

U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., over the weekend sent out data showing that a default could have disrupted $16 billion in federal payments -- including Social Security checks, Medicare and Medicaid payments, veterans' benefits, student loans, local government grants and more -- in Alameda County alone.

She "is planning to support the debt deal because it would help us avoid a catastrophic default and keep Republicans from holding the full faith and credit of the United States hostage," spokesman Zachary Coile said.

Read the Political Blotter at IBAbuzz.com/politics. Follow Josh Richman at Twitter.com/josh_richman.

Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_18595614