Our battle against extremism

Sen. Bill Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) apparently got the same Democratic Party memo that Sen. Chuck Schumer received.  The Democrats have committed to fighting the budget battle on the basis of Republican extremism.

Nelson let me know via campaign email:

Dear Bryan,

Let me bring you up to date on the government shutdown here in Washington. Thankfully, we've just seen common sense begin to triumph over right-wing extremism.

It took weeks of fighting, but we're beginning to get a spending deal that aims to be fair to everybody. The battle mainly has been against a group of right-wing extremists who tried to hold the federal government hostage in order to pass severe restrictions on women's health care.  But a last-minute compromise to avert a shutdown of the federal government occurred late Friday, because reasonable lawmakers were able to come together and trump the extremists.

As the chairman of a newly created Senate subcommittee charged with finding ways to reduce the deficit and create jobs, I will be in a position to work on a plan that's good for our country.

I believe workable solutions can be reached only when reasonable people work together. That now seems to be happening in the budget talks. We all agree the government has to live within its means. But to get compromise, we all also have to give up some things we may have wanted.

In the coming days and weeks, Congress still has a lot of work ahead to pass a long-term spending bill. But I believe the temporary agreement is a step in the right direction. At the end of the day, I'm confident that with your support we'll be able to adopt a plan for spending cuts that's fair - and keeps our economy moving in the right direction, too.

Sincerely,
Bill Nelson

Thanks for the update, Sen. Nelson. I'll redouble my efforts to retire you from the Senate. It isn't extreme to cut 100 billion from a budget that was $1.3 trillion in 2010 and rising (not that the budget deal would cut half that much). And if Planned Parenthood can't be cut then we ought to ask where we can make cuts.