Democratic Skeptics Meet

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) called together a congressional group today that he dubbed the Skeptics Caucus. A Sherman aide said that more than 50 staffers and at least nine members of Congress showed up for a 2:30 meeting today.

Another Democratic aide said that Sherman was joined by, among others, Reps. LLoyd Doggett (D-Texas), Donna Edwards (D-Md.) and Bob Filner (D-Calif.).

The more conservative skeptics asked why Democrats weren't insisting Bush pay for the proposal, suggesting rolling back some of his tax cuts or revisiting hedge-fund-executive tax policy, which currently allows hedge fund managers to pay the lower capital gains tax rate rather than the higher income tax rate.

Others called for a lower authorization level and warned that at this pace Congress was about to get rolled just as it did during the debate over the Patriot Act.

UPDATE: Here's the full sign-in sheet from the meeting, courtesy of Sherman spokesman Roger Lotz: Doggett, Donna Edwards, Filner, Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon), Donna Christensen (Virgin Islands), Mike McIntyre (D-N.C.), Rush Holt (D-N.J.), Bobby Scott (D-Va.) and Louie Gohmert (R-Texas). This post previously said that Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) had been at the meeting. He wasn't.

He also sends along the discussion list for the meeting, saying that the points it contains were broadly agreed on by the Skeptics Caucus. After the jump...
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