This makes me crazy. Any Democratic politicians who attach themselves to any derivation of The Worst Idea In American Politics, especially in 2019, are not "moderate Democrats." They are conservative Democrats or, more accurately, radically conservative Democrats. Really, Bloomberg, knock this stuff off. Also, Blue Dogs? Knock this stuff off, too.

The move by the so-called Blue Dog Coalition adds to tension over ideology and priorities among Democrats as the House prepares to vote this week on legislation that would add $350 billion in deficit spending over the next two years.

The 27-member Blue Dog Coalition says it’s backing an amendment proposed by Utah Representative Ben McAdams, one of the most vulnerable Democrats up for re-election in 2020. The amendment would allow deficits during wars or recessions and would shield Social Security and Medicare from court-enforced cuts. The requirement for spending to equal revenue would take effect five years after ratification, to allow for a transition period. "Both parties have behaved in a way that is fiscally irresponsible," McAdams said. "The day of reckoning is coming."

And, you know that the dumbest argument in favor of the Worst Idea In American Politics is coming.

"In my district, fiscal responsibility matters. People live within their means and they are responsible with the decisions that they make, and we expect the same from our federal government," he said.

Hey, if we have to balance the household budget at the kitchen table...No, I can't even mock it.

In addition to its being The Worst Idea In American Politics, the BBA is the pry-bar being used to open the entire Constitution to revision, an effort that's being bankrolled by people who long for the days of unregulated plutocracy, and the cheap labor on which it depends, and on the basic racism on which that always depends in our history. It is central to the push for an Article V Convention of the States—which would be, in reality, the Worst Idea In American History. Seeing putative Democrats pushing for this notion does not make them useful idiots because they're not useful at all.

Update (6:12 p.m.): In this regard, of course, the current pack of Blue Dogs is merely following the lead of the guy who's leading all the polls for the 2020 nomination.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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