Of Hawaii's four Congresspeople, only one joined the Teaparty crazies and voted against the budget bill on Dec 12, 2013. Considering the U.S. government had been operating without a budget and that $63 billion in additional sequester cuts were set to go into effect if the bill wasn't passed, voting against it was the height of irresponsibility.
Suspicion was that Hanabusa thought her "no" vote would be useful in her increasingly negative campaign to unseat the progressive Senator Brian Schatz. And today suspicions were confirmed as people began blogging about Sen Schatz "cutting military retirement".
The noxious provisions of this compromise bill included reducing the retirement cost of living allowance (COLA) for working-age military retirees.
Hanabusa has seized on this and issued a press release detailing all the things wrong with this compromise bill.
Well duh! It's a compromise.
That is how you get things done when you have a Republican majority in the House. Since the alternative is another government shutdown and $63 billion of new cuts, it is completely irresponsible not to hold one's nose and vote for the bill.
Reversing the COLA cuts on military pensions is an easy fix. The right wing is already screaming about the cuts with headlines like: "Senate Democrats Vote To Cut Pensions For Veterans Instead of Welfare For Illegals."
Representative Tulsi Gabbard (who despite her dislike of many of the budget bill's provisions, voted in favor) has already sponsored a bill to restore COLA to retirement benefits.
Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (HI-02) today announced she will be an original co-sponsor of the Military Retirement Restoration Act (H.R. 3793), a bill that would repeal planned cuts to military retiree cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) that were included in the Bipartisan Budget Act last week. The Military Retirement Restoration Act would replace the cuts to military retiree benefits by closing loopholes and preventing companies from avoiding U.S. taxes by abusing overseas tax havens.
See, Rep Hanabusa, that is how
smart congresswomen get around Teaparty obstruction. By negotiating a deal where the cuts will have bipartison support for restoring funding, you get your compromise deal and then immediately repeal the parts you don't like.
Not by putting your political campaign talking points ahead of the welfare of your constituents.
During the last government shutdown which cost the country $1.5 billion per day, we saw Hawaii's federal parks close (at a cost of a quarter of a million dollars per day) and response to the molasses bill hampered.
Voting for another government shutdown, as Hanabusa did, is just plain irresponsible.