Populist Caucus To Form In House: Braley

The fierce populist streak that has been coursing through America will soon have an official voice on Capitol Hill: the Populist Caucus.

Rep. Bruce Braley, an Iowa Democrat, will officially announce the formation of the caucus later this week, with 21 founding members -- all Democrats. The initial purpose will be to influence legislation from within the Democratic caucus, but Braley did not rule out opening the group to Republicans.

Braley said that the caucus will give voice to the populist anger created by the plummeting economy and opaque bank bailout.

"As someone who has been out holding town hall meetings and getting a faceful of that populist rage, I know that it is real, it is a force that needs to be dealt with, and it needs to be given a voice," said Braley.

It won't be all pitchforks, though, Braley said. "We want to give voice to those cries and at the same time work constructively with other individuals in Congress to craft policies that are going to respond to those concerns."

The Populist Caucus will make its first major play by advocating for the inclusion of a "Buy American" provision in the stimulus package. Fair trade, healthcare and middle-class tax policy will also dominate the caucus' agenda, said Braley, a sophomore member.

The founding membership includes folks from a broad swath of the political spectrum, including Reps. Michael Arcuri (D-NY); Pete DeFazio (D-OR); Betty Sutton (D-OH); Leonard Boswell (D-IA); Steve Cohen (D-TN); Joe Courtney (D-CT); Keith Ellison (D-MN); Bob Filner (D-CA); Phil Hare (D-IL); Mazie Hirono (D-HI); Hank Johnson (D-GA); Steve Kagan (D-WI); David Loebsack (D-IA); Eric Massa (D-NY); Linda Sanchez (D-CA); Jan Schakowsky (D-IL); Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH); Peter Welch (D-VT); and John Yarmuth (D-KY).

Comments

[DonTampa58]

Hats off to all of them for standing up to the liberals like Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank.

[GeorgeP922]

Rush comes back on in 15 hours, you should go hide somewhere and wait till then.

[Chapmanp2]

Nancy Pelosi is a poser. She's certainly no liberal she just has to pretend like she is in order to keep her job. As for Barney Frank, God Bless him.

[Jelperman]

Good for Braley!

[nana4g]

Are they new to Congress? I think they should learn how to work effectively within the system first before branching off into their own caucas, ie, the Populist Caucas; isn't that what Democrats are supposed to be?

[GeorgeP922]

Are you new to congress?

The Democrats are notorious for their conservative cacuses, BlueDog(BushDog), YellowDog and DLC are all famous scoundrels and if it weren't for Howard Dean and Barack Obama they would have taken us to where the Republicans are now.

All the capitulation and triangulation, and overall bowing of heads is due to these clowns.

Thank god we have competition.

[Hopalongpoppyseed]

"Are they new to Congress?'" No nana42, they are not all new to Congress. I see the name of Oregon's progressive Pete DeFazio. Others are progressive. There is nothing wrong with having different caucuses in Congress. The Black caucus has long been a strong liberal - progressive caucus. Yes, you are right that the Democrats are supposed to be the Populist Caucus, but really, they fall short of that, far to often. I say this as a Democratic PCO since 1979. We progressives need to push our leadership or they will take the easy road. I am all for the buy American idea and a caucus to promote it is bound to help, because the President and his advisors are not enthusiastic about the buy American idea.

[KCFreedom]

Buy American?

What do we make that can be bought anymore?

Guns, liquor, beer, ammo, cigarettes and porn.

That's it.

[GeorgeP922]

You got to admit, we do have the BEST!

Especially Porn, if you are an "active" male, you know as well as I do that ALL foreign porn is 20 years behind the US of A.

[pfrogger]

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!
Morons, your bus is leaving.
Why do they keep repeating the mistakes of the past.
Following the Great Depression, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act was passed that had similar principles as this "Buy America" nonsense.
But what this act actually did was reduce international trade and cause retaliatory tariffs in other countries. Translation - it decreased economic growth internationally (now days American businesses are even more involved internationally). For idiots - it didn't help America, it hurt America.

Are our leaders morons? Of course they are. Uneducated intellectual idiots elected under some populist guise by other idiots.
When given the option of A. choose your leader among the best of you, or B. choose your leader among the most average of you, only idiots pick B (ie. George Bush junior).
And now these people can't even read their history.
We should encourage the purchase of American products WITHOUT a law as other countries are doing with their own products. But by making a law of it, other countries WILL impose retaliatory tariffs just like after the Great Depression. Eventually it will become a tariff arms race and everyone loses.
In addition that is NOT, NOT, NOT the problem. If people buy American products, will the recession be over? NO!!!
America relies on a global economy to function. And now we're going to cut that lifeline? That would only prolong the recession or decrease the revitalization of American businesses.

"I knew it, I'm surrounded by a-holes. Keep firing a-holes."

[cmugs]

youre right. if you read foreign news papers like al jazeera and even the bbc to some extent they are discussing that and waiting to see if we are going to make that same mistake again.

[OpusIsUnderTheBed]

Braley for dogcatcher.

[MidwestBlue]

Do you even know who Bruce Braley is? He's a very Progressive voice in Democratic politics. David Sirota is heralding this caucus:
"Looking over the initial membership of this caucus, I think we can expect some good stuff from it in the weeks and months ahead on the bailout, on regulation and on trade issues. It could become a key player in ratcheting up the "Make Him Do It" Dynamic."
OpenLeft.comm)
Bruce Braley has served as a trial lawyer whose specialty was representing people who had been injured on the job or were unfairly terminated.
Now the question is: what the heck is Blue Dog Leonard Boswell doing in there? Is he a mole?

[OpusIsUnderTheBed]

I don't know anything about Braley, but I know this. If we stop buying products and services from companies in other countries, nobody will buy our goods and services. No other countries will buy our goods and services.

A vote for Braley is a vote for financial progress.

[sueinmn]

If we dont start employing our own people with decent paying jobs we will not beable to afford even the China imports!

I challenge you to venture off this site and go world wide. You will open your eyes and see changes in your outlook. France, the UK are pulling in thier borders to protect their economy and their workers. China is realizing they can no longer rely on the US and are reversing their beliefs. They are building their infrastructure and realize they must allow their own people to produce product they can afford to buy themselves. India sends their most brightest here to become educated and India is presently a selff sufficient country not relying on imports. Their are presently new 3rd world nations emerging to compete against China. We must always rely on some imports/exports but not at the rate we are presently. Economics and national security go hand in hand. We are locked into an unfair playing field with the WTO and we have suffered and this has been a slow destruction for the last 30 years in this country until recently almost a total collapse. We need to manufacture and produce here on our own soil, become self sufficient and comtrol the import/exports to a livable ration. What goods do we sell that you are worried about? Do they out weigh the amounts of lost lively hoods in this country? We need priorities and "WE" need to be the priority now....!

[meemu]

Makes sense to me......

[WarrenPease]

I trust Hank Johnson's wisdom on this one. I hope they have frequent "town hall" meetings with their constituents and spend less time with the moneyed lobbyists.

[Carolab]

Thank you--I see my state's good representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota is on this list.

[sueinmn]

Yes and Congressman Oberstar (hope Im correct) is pushing strongly for the E VERIFY program for illegals! Horray we need more of these good people!

[Invox]

We don't need Buy America just for Americans. We need Buy America for the rest of the world. We need to start making things again that people around the world will buy. Let's start with energy wise automobiles.

[manyamile]

We DO make things here, and we CAN make more things here.
I make my living doing exactly that.
I try to patronize businesses and individuals who do the same.
I am all for it.
It makes sense.

[MEN8v]

What do you drive? Name an "American" car -- it's not as easy as you think.

[pfrogger]

I agree.
Who in their right mind would buy an American car. The industry has stagnated due to their own decadence over the last 20-30 years. They are far behind the other foreign car makers. Why? because they chose to roll around in their piles of money and didn't look to the future. They killed the electric car and they restricted new ideas with their power.
So I say let them die. Along with the Repubs, they are looking back to a "better" time when they were loaded and profits were good instead of looking ahead.

As for other American goods, I think if it's a good product, and there are many good American products, then we should buy them.
But if there's something better, cheaper, and more reliable from a foreign company, I would buy that - live by the capitalist sword, die bu the capitalist sword.

[NWBrunette]

We need a progressive caucus, not a populist one. "Buy American" is just continued denial of the obvious - we're in a global economy. We're going to have to think differently and create a new paradigm rather than trying to put reality back in the little box some of us think it should go in.

[spiritpony1]

yep, only thing----alas, I do not think "progressive" at this time will get far----I have been there 35 years for naught------it's harder to "deny" the "American" sh..... I agree w/ you, but reality is reality

[KarryH]

"Buy America" will sink us into an even worse recession. I'm all for a Populist Caucus, but not if they are going to push that agenda, that is economic sui cide

[MEN8v]

Agreed. The "buy American" provision is politically popular and economically misguided. Not a very good issue to adopt as your first cause.

[DonTampa58]

You have that now. It's full of screaming liberals like Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, Dennis Kucinnich, Harry Waxman and others.

[Petey131]

Some advice: Forget the members of the Republican Taliban party. They will only obstruct your goals.

[GeorgeP922]

Since we are on the Buy American conversation, let me bring back to that.

We should start a "Buy North America" campaign.
Lets face it, we get alot of good products from Mexico and Canada, and we receive no taxes on exports/imports with those two countries.

If we are in Nafta, and not going to change it, then lets be proud of it.

I am not in Labor (I do service) so I was suprised and confuesed at hte back and forth hillary and President Obama had during the primaries over Nafta.

Regardless, I think with the dominance of Chinese and South Asian products, along wth a crashing economy, America is ready to begin deciding with our wallets how America's production economy will go, versus the ceo's who will run off to some s-hole country without blinking.

And politically (republicans close your eyes) this policy wins us 3 fold, Republicans have chosen Labor (unions, laws, healthcare) as their next big battle.
They used card check as their sole motivator for donors to help beat Obama last november.

Lets save America, and take away their ammunition at the same time.

Look I drive a VW Jetta, made in Mexico under Nafta.
I dont see why I should be any more embaressed to put a BUY AMERICAN sticker on my car than any driver of a Ford/GM or Honda/Toyota/Nissan.

God America gets on my nerves sometimes

[KarenT]

As someone who has owned both import and American cars, the question is, where do the profits go? I'm buying American (GM, Ford or Chrysler) from now on.

[MEN8v]

Who provides more good paying jobs to Americans? Is it really GM, Ford, and Chrysler any more? The primary rationale/metric President Obama provided for the Recovery and Reinvestment Act is job creation/preservation. It is debatable the degree to which "buy American" actually advances that cause.

[pfrogger]

If we are truly capitalists then we should buy the best product at the lowest price.
GM, Ford, and Chrysler make inferior cars compared to foreign makers (some of whom make their cars in the US). Why would I pay money for an inferior product that is less reliable? If the American car companies loved America so much, they would make better cars and make them cheaper. That's the point of capitalism - competition to drive down prices for consumers and competition to provide the "best" product.
I am not buying American just to say I buy American. They have had ample opportunities to make reliable and decent cars. They have some of the smartest people working for them. But the management continues to stifle innovation and continue with its current strategy, which has been proven not to work. Why would I reward that behavior? I won't.
BTW, there are new EV (electric vehicle) companies like Tesla, which are American and offer new, innovative, reliable cars. If the Big 3 fail, then new American companies will offer what they can't - innovation. I don't want the workers of the Big 3 to be out of jobs, but their management offers only 1 untenable option: buy our inferior American cars or else. I'll go with or else.

[newmexicogold]

What impreses me about this group is that is not a regional caucus. Hopefully, it will attract members of both parties. I will still keep an eye on their financial disclosures. I've been fooled before.