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Congressional Democrats are finally getting organized. Though we'll never be as lock-step controlled as the Republican Party -- by definition, that kind of authoritarian subjugation to tightly controlled, central planning is closer to extreme right-wing fascism than liberalism -- we can at least all point in the same general direction when someone asks, Which way to the future?
In addition to our lone think tank, the Center for American Progress, Senate Democrats just unveiled democrats.gov, "the Digital Democratic Caucus". For the kickoff of this new resource, they've highlighted an agenda (transcript of press conference) that defines what our party is all about, "a future of security, opportunity, and responsibility," all wrapped up in ten easy pieces of legislation. Go ahead and co-sponsor 'em.
Since Senate Republicans announced their legislative agenda the same day, let's do a little compare and contrast:
| Democratic Agenda | Republican Agenda |
S.11 Strengthen the Mililtary - Authorize an additional 40,000 Army and Marine Corps troops. | No comparable legislation to strengthen the military. In fact, they're forcing the Air Force and Navy to make a $55 Billion budget cut so their tax cuts can be made permanent. As Rumsfeld said, Republicans go to war with whatever military they have lying around. |
S.12 Target Terrorists Effectively - Authorize an additional 2,000 Special Ops troops, accelerate efforts to secure "loose nukes", and develop education alternatives to radical Islamic madrassas. | S.3 Fighting the War on Terror - Sounds like it'll be BioShield 2 and PATRIOT 2. |
S.13 Veterans Benefits - Strengthen healthcare benefits for veterans and revitalize the G.I. bill. | No comparable legislation. Republicans legislators have repeatedly tried to reduce veterans benefits. |
S.14 Invest in American Jobs - Raise the minimum wage, invest in US infrastructure and new technologies, enforce fair trade, set a limit on foreign debt. | While S.7, the Jobs and Growth-Tax Relief Package, is being sold as a jobs bill, it really just makes permanent the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts relating to the marginal income tax rates, the capital gains and dividends rates, and the estate tax repeal. This is the tax cut bill for rich people. |
S.15 Strengthen Education - Fully fund the No Child Left Behind Act, provide incentives for better math and science teachers, and roll back the GOP's college Pell Grant cuts. | S.9 Lifetime of Education Opportunities Act - Reauthorization of about 20 previous bills under a new name, plus some adult education opportunities. |
S.16 Make Healthcare Affordable - Tax credits to help small businesses cover employees, legalize importation of cheaper prescription drugs, modernize healthcare administration to sharply decrease costs, provide coverage for every child. | S.4 Healthy America - National personal health records, encourage comparative shopping for healthcare, and Health Savings Accounts (which make excellent tax shelters if you already have healthcare insurance. If you can't afford healthcare insurance, then you probably have no money to put into an HSA either - useless). |
S.17 Verified Voting - Voter verifiable ballots, national standards for voting procedures, greater transparency for voter registration and voter rolls, election day holiday. | No comparable legislation. As long as they keep winning, the GOP doesn't think there's a problem. They'll come on board when we take back the Senate in 2006. |
S.18 Strengthen Medicare - Allow Medicare to use the power of its 41 million beneficiaries to negotiate lower drug prices, eliminate the HMO slush fund, and ensure seniors aren't forced into more expensive HMO's. | No comparable legislation. Republicans already "did" Medicare. |
S.19 Fiscal Responsibility - Restore the pay-as-you-go rule (no more governing beyond their means), reinstate mandatory spending cuts, and stop "fast tracking" legislation that increases the deficit. | Again there is no comparable legislation. Senate Republicans are more interested in new accounting gimmicks to make it seem like the deficit is smaller, than actually reducing the deficit. In fact, they removed all references to balancing the budget and introducing spending caps from the GOP platform. |
S.20 Focus on Preventing Abortion - Increase funding for family planning and counseling programs, expand awareness and availability of contraception for women. | The only thing that comes close is S.8, the Child Custody Protection Act, which makes it illegal for anyone but the parents to take their daughter across state lines for an abortion. Even if the parent raped the girl. |
| The only crisis here is that Republicans seem hell-bent on adding 2 trillion dollars to their record-setting budget deficits. | S.1 Social Security Reform - Partially privatize Social Security. |
| What can I say? I'll get back to you when someone knows what this is all about. | S.2 Simplify Tax Code - A vague intention to simplify the tax code. |
| It was a bad idea every time Republicans brought it up over the last thirty years. It still is. Nice to know some things never change. | S.5 Tort Reform -Cap the damages a victim can seek from a corporation that knowingly sells defective products. |
| This is a great bill. Senate Democrats unanimously supported the extension of these middle-class tax cuts last year. I'm sure they'll also support making them permanent. | S.6 Marriage Opportunity Relief and Empowerment Act - Makes permanent the marriage tax relief and child tax credits. |
| I'm sorely disappointed that Senate Democrats didn't offer an alternative. Good luck trying to fashion this piece of crap into Kerry's excellent energy policy. | S.10 Energy Policy- Massive tax-dollar giveaways to the oil industry. Primarily focused on increasing oil production in the US and around the world, rather than investing in renewable alternatives to oil. |
As Senator Charles Schumer said, Democrats "are talking about the meat-and-potato issues that people care about: security, jobs, health care. They [Republicans] are off on an ideological junket." Looking at the matchup, that's pretty obvious.
Why Republicans think mucking with Social Security and tort reform is a higher priority than fighting terrorism, strengthening and equipping our military for Iraq and the future, and getting bin Laden (you know, the guy who attacked the United States and killed thousands of American citizens) is completely beyond me.