Posted on 01/02/2007 7:52:42 AM PST by SmithL
Eager to shed its do-nothing label, a shaken-up Congress will return Thursday to a full plate, starting with the swearing-in of the nation's first female speaker of the House of Representatives.
Democrat Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco and her party have big plans as they take on a weakened, wartime Republican president and assume control of both chambers after a dozen years in the minority. Those plans include higher pay for hourly workers, cheaper prescription drugs for seniors, a hastened pullout from Iraq and a more liberal immigration policy.
"Democrats are prepared to govern and ready to lead," the speaker-designate said before leaving Washington for the holiday break. When President Bush makes his annual address before Congress on Jan. 23, Pelosi said, "He will walk into a new place, where America's families' issues will have been addressed even before the State of the Union."
How much the new majority accomplishes in the 110th Congress may be tempered by Democrats' divisions in the House and their bare majority in the Senate: 50-49, with Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., recovering from brain surgery. Congress' low public standing -- 21 percent in the latest Gallup survey -- and competing interests among the many 2008 presidential hopefuls in their ranks also could limit action. But the Democrats may benefit from Bush's desire to build a legacy for himself beyond Iraq in his remaining two years in office.
As they return to work, congressional Democrats intend to move on three fronts: a 100-hour plan, a long-term agenda and a barrage of oversight hearings on various issues but particularly on the Iraq war.
Within the first 100 hours of legislative business, a deadline expected to close just before Bush delivers his State of the Union address, House Democrats say ...
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
BTW, how is Tim Johnson doing? Is he in fact recovering or is that just wishful thinking on Harry "The Body" Reid's part?
BUSH will veto this again.
And now for the fruits of the weak GOP and all of the dummies that stayed home on election day...
"and all of the dummies that stayed home on election day..."
Oh, jeez. Repeat a lie...
SIOUX FALLS — A series of tests early this week may indicate the kind of recovery that U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson could face as he emerges from a lengthy sedation after emergency brain surgery.
“Physical therapy will be a part of the process. As to what level, it will really take these next tests to figure that out. We’ll know a lot more in the next couple of days,” Julianne Fisher, a Johnson spokeswoman, said over the weekend.
Johnson, D-S.D., was hospitalized Dec. 13 for bleeding in the brain.
A brain hemorrhage left Johnson with a pronounced weakness on one side. Surgery relieved pressure on his brain that was caused by the escape of blood and stabilized the circulatory defect that caused the bleeding.
Doctors at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C, will try to assess Johnson’s cognitive and physical abilities this week.
Doctors believe Johnson is improving and are optimistic, Fisher said.
“He’s doing well. It’s like a waking-up process,” she said. “The doctors tell us things are heading in the right direction.”
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2007/01/02/news/state/state01.txt
Is thou so sureth???
If he does, it'll be to sacrifice some other issue that will hurt us even more, and create a problem that will be difficult, if not impossible to correct...
So pick another GOP issue that will be offered up for a liberal sacrifice...
I have but two words for the 'Rats in Congress: PRESIDENTIAL VETO
Think they'll get around to Term Limits?
Or deny Congress pay raises after
eliminating the Bush Tax Cuts?
They don't have the votes to do much. They don't have the votes to override a veto on just about anything they can pass. Pelosi can throw all the parties she wants to, but her power is simply an illusion.
I would be willing to support higher min wage and more federal intervention into prescription drugs if Pelosi would be willing to support any further Presidental judicial appointees and support legislation to de-fund Planned Aborthood. What say you, Nancy?
My Senator Jim Inhofe is prepared along with his fellow Republican Senators (except for Spector I would bet) to make sure this never clears the Senate. Pres Bush better have his veto pen handy in the next two years.
Yes, I am.
Bush has used he veto, like once or twice? I think he will sign just about anything put on his desk.
To overcome the President veto they need 2/3 of votes in each chamber! The democrats delude themselves as usual if they believe that they can get 2/3 of votes in each Chamber of Congress.
Bullseye.
And watch them squeal.
Cognitive?
Sounds like he's still in a coma, but it's a "light" coma.
When people are defeated for again, and again, and again, they tend to greatly overrate their victories once they have it. The United States Congress is not powerful than the President of the United States because on domestic issue you need 2/3 of Congress to overcome the decision of the President, and on foreign policy issue they have even less power than domestic issues. The Founding Fathers were very wise to give more power to the President than Congress, because they knew that few things can be resolved and executed when hundred of politicians are endlessly debating the issues.
President Bush has used his veto pen a grand total of one time, to veto the embryonic stem cell reseach funding bill last summer. Yes, he has signed just about everything that was put on his desk, including a lot of pork and some real piece-of-excrement bills.
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