I thought I would way in on what priorities the Democrats should take to their new majority status in Congress. With control of both Houses of Congress, and an overwhelming victory in the recent midterm elections, the Democratic agenda in this Congress between 2006 and 2008 will be a crucial time for retaining our majority and hopefully picking up the White House in 2008. If the American people having given us this opportunity trust us to govern the revolution that was the 2006 election can truly become a point when American politics change for the better and a lot of good can be done.
As I do this, two things overshadow all else, as much as I would love to pass universal healthcare and to really take initiative on global warming, and hurry out of Iraq, there are some fundamental legacies of the Gingrich and DeLay years that a Democratic Congress must reverse, and in so doing can restore us to a responsibile governance.
The Legacy:
This legacy of the Gingrich DeLay years can be summed up in two words, "extreme partisonship." The era when one President was impeached for sleeping with an intern, and the next President not so much as questioned over illegal wiretapping programs, a war that we were lead into under false pretenses, and a refusal by Congress to control even the most eggregious acts within its ranks. This legacy is what must be placed at the top of the Democratic agenda.
The Agenda:
It is with this in mind that the first major actions by this Congress must be institutional changes. The minority party cannot be shut out of the committee process anymore, members from both parties must be allowed to submit amendments, and middle of the night spur of the moment roll call votes must be abolished. The Republicans established an arrogance in their power nearly as soon as they took control of Congress, and its time for the Democrats to restore things to how they were before the Republicans screwed things up so thoroughly. Further, it cannot be overstated how important serious investigations into both the rationale for going to war in Iraq, and the way the war was carried out after we went in, asking tough questions of the Bush Administration all the way and agressively using our subpoena power, if they refuse to cooperate its impeachment time.
Impeachment, barring extreme circumstances must be kept on the backburner. Speaker Pelosi (god that sounds good) has pledged to the American public that she has no intention of impeaching the President. We must keep our word on this, we cannot be percieved as out for blood the moment we get in to office, while I said before that investigations need to be aggressive, impeachment is overkill and quite frankly, worthless. Even if we can impeach Bush in the House, we're about 15 votes short of removing him from office in the Senate anyway. We should not go out of our way to further divide a nation that has already been fractured by a manipulative Republican order. That said, if something extremely compelling comes up during investigations over the Iraq war or domestic spying, something that shakes the political order accross the political spectrum which nobody expected, a Democratic Congress should not hesitate to impeach. I fully believe that Bush deserves impeachment, it is just not a plausible goal for this party at this time.
Ethics were cited by voters as one major reason for supporting Democrats in the exit poll. It should go without saying that ethics and campaign finance reform should be among the first things done by this Congress, and it cannot be squishy, be hard line enough on this issue that even some Democrats might get snagged. Repairing this countries broken political state and reducing lobbyist influence should not be a partison issue, and we cannot be like the Republicans who turn it into one. If they want to oppose serious ethics reform let them stand with the lobbyists while we stand with the American people.
These are the things that should be atop the agenda, but I hardly think that internal changes within Congress and the executive are going to make life any better for the average American, the agenda must begin where I just was but cannot end there. Democrats must take a strong initiative to lead the country in the right direction while pursuing things that they can actually pass, a difficult task.
Where to cooperate:
There are a few issues in which a broad coalition that never had the opportunity to emerge during the Republican Congress can pass some really positive changes. Some Bush will want to veto but will be unwilling to use, and others will be things that Bush is willing to support. We need to increase the minimum wage which Bush will want to veto but won't. We need to pass a bipartison immigration bill that cracks down on those doing real harm while treating immigrants fairly and reasonably. This means visa reform, it means cracking down on smugglers, and it means cracking down on employers who hire illegals, while supporting Mexico economically so that fewer Mexicans feel so desperate that they need to risk their lives to come here illegally. Bush will support this, as will many of the pro-business Republicans out there. We should do this not because immigration is a pressing issue for this moment in history, but rather because the political will exists to do good at this moment to establish a reasonable moderate immigration reform (unlike that rediculous thing the House of Reps passed last year). Supporting renewable energy is the third item that should be high on the agenda. Democrats can all agree that taking steps to reduce energy costs and carbon emmissions is necessary. The energy bill that was passed and signed 2 years ago was largely a gift to oil companies, but contained some positive efforts to support renewables as well. I think that many Republicans will grudgingly support a bill that provides greater support to renewables without the gifts to oil companies.
Finally, support policies that will be good for the middle class. There are a whole host of good ideas, making college tuition partly tax deductable is one, there are a million other good ideas. Democrats must support the middle class, and as with the example I provided a moment ago, Republicans can always support a tax cut.
Where to go to war:
Go to war over the war. Democrats must establish a coherent plan for leaving Iraq in the near future, whether it is an immediate or timed withdrawel, I really don't care, Bush will veto, but Democrats must unite behind one or multiple approaches to leaving Iraq and declare war with the Bush Administration over this issue, for we now have the ability to pass something and force their hand. Personally I think it would be a good idea to cut off funding if the Administration refuses to agree to any kind of reasonable withdrawel plan, but this isnt plausible, Americans rightly wont appreciate their sons and daughters being stuck in Iraq with no support because Bush is too stubborn to pull them out and Congress is too stubborn to fund them. It would likely be cruel to our troops to withdraw funding, so unfortunately this is off the table.
Taxes and the budget. I said earlier that there are some tax cuts we should pursue, we should also eliminate the Bush tax cuts. Bush will veto if we pass it, and we may not be able to pass a repeal, but the budget requires it. We can save a lot of money by getting rid of at least parts of the Bush tax cut and fund other things, like more useful middle class tax cuts. A lot of budgetary space is also saved by getting out of Iraq. We cant continue to run the massive deficits that we have been running, but also realistically probably cant pass an entirely balanced budget for a few years, but repealing part or all of the Bush tax cuts and getting out of Iraq can go a long way. The Republicans will scream and yell, and Bush will veto anything repealing his tax cuts, but its important to try. Further, we have tremendous power to manipulate the budget to serve better goals and reduce the deficit without stiffing poor people like the Republicans have done. This is a tremendous power, and for the most part the Republicans cant stop us.
What should not be on the table:
Other than impeachment which I already talked about. As nice as it would be to repair America's badly broken health care system, we cannot pass universal health care in this Congress. Bush will veto and we might not be able to get it through Congress. Furthermore, the present budget situation is pretty iffy for something that would fundamentally alter the budget. Put universal health care on the backburner, pass some non binding resolutions about it to send signals to the voters, but we cant do anything right now unfortunately.
Anything dealing with guns. Even the otherwise liberal John Tester will not support gun control legislation, don't throw the right wing any meat to regain what they're losing in the mountain west. The recent school shootings are horrible tragedies but we simply lack the ability to act, far too many pro-gun Democrats to do anything.
In Conclusion:
I believe that this would be an effective agenda for the Democrats to pursue when they take office. A landslide victory like the one achieved brings with it a tremendous power, and we must use it, but we must restore goodwill to Washington, and we must recognize where we lack the ability to do anything at this time. We need to try to govern here, not merely embarrass Bush and the Republicans. The country will be a better place, and voters will reward us if we pursue first and foremost what we can actually accomplish with some measure of bipartison support rather than divide with losing causes. Its time to reverse the extreme partison legacy of the Gingrich-DeLay years and usher in an era of hope and concern for issues that matter to ordinary Americans.