Karen Bass says she’s gone from one contentious budget debate to another

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Newly seated Rep. Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles), who went to Congress last month after a stint as California Assembly Speaker during part of the state’s continuing wallow in red ink, said Wednesday she felt a sense of deja vu when confronted with the federal government’s own contentious budget debate.

‘So much seems so familiar,’ Bass told a group of reporters in her Hancock Park district office about the similarities between the strident, highly partisan debates in Sacramento and in Washington as the parties fight over budget cuts. ‘I thought here we go again ... I’ve definitely gone from the frying pan into the fire.’

A big difference is that now Bass belongs to the party that lost power in the House during last fall’s elections and now finds herself setting aside her own legislative goals for a while to learn the ropes and to fight budget battles.’It’s not just about the money; it’s also about [political] philosophy,’ Bass said of GOP efforts to make deep cuts in federal spending, including some social services and programs she believes are vital.

Her top priority now is trying to help resolve budget differences to avoid a possible government shutdown. Bass also wants to keep Republicans from gutting the Obama administration’s sweeping healthcare overhaul. She thinks the Democrats missed an opportunity to build voter support for the program by not ‘packaging it as jobs bill.’ The legislation will lead to good, well-paying jobs in the healthcare field, she asserted.

In her first ‘roundtable’ with local reporters since her Jan. 5 swearing in, Bass said she wants soon to continue the work on foster care and other legislation affecting families that she made a priority during her six years in the state Assembly.

For now, however, fighting deep budget cuts and saving the healthcare legislation come first: ‘It’s about defense right now.’

-- Jean Merl