Posted on 03/02/2007 11:39:37 AM PST by mdittmar
WASHINGTON - Two months after Democrats took control of Congress, there isn't much to show for the switch in power — despite feverish efforts to weigh in on meaty matters, such as the war in Iraq.
A Vermont park has a new name, a new board oversees the now-infamous House page program and a glitch has been fixed in minting $1 silver coins honoring Thomas Edison.
Democrats also have gotten enacted into law modest boosts in veterans' benefits, health research and college loans, perhaps their biggest achievement during their time in power. That accomplishment came on a nearly half-trillion-dollar spending bill that Republicans left uncompleted last fall, when voters decided they wanted a different party than the president's running Congress.
The face of Congress itself has been altered markedly since Democrats took over this year, with a woman in the House speaker's chair, anti-war leaders in senior posts, and a veritable glut of hearings probing everything from Iraq policy to whether the Bush administration is trying to silence climate change researchers.
But thanks to their slim margins of control, the molasses-like pace of the Senate, and a president ready to wield his ultimate weapon — the veto — to block their agenda, Democrats' wish list lacks a single check mark.
"If it requires action in both houses of Congress and a presidential signature, there are limits to how much one party's agenda can actually see the light of day," said Thomas Mann, a Brookings Institution congressional expert.
Given those constraints, Mann added, Democrats "are off to a reasonably good start."
House Democrats proudly showcased a jam-packed first 100 hours in power, during which they muscled through a $2.10 minimum wage raise, a requirement for the government to negotiate for lower Medicare prescription drug prices, and a measure that rolled back tax breaks for oil companies. Many of their priority bills even attracted substantial Republican support.
With the exception of the minimum wage measure, however, most of those marquee initiatives have little chance of becoming law, which would take 60 votes in the closely divided Senate and the signature of a president who is hostile to most Democrats' priorities.
Some leaders say they're victims of their own success.
"We raised expectations by doing so much so quickly, so effectively that it would all of a sudden therefore just happen," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (news, bio, voting record), D-Md., with a snap of his fingers. "In moving so fast, we gave the impression it was easy."
It isn't, and the public seems to have noticed.
Only about one third approve of the job Congress is doing, up from a record low of a quarter last June, according to AP-Ipsos polling.
Democrats' regard for Congress has improved substantially since their party won the elections, but still only about four in 10 approve. Among Republicans, it's only one in three.
"The low-hanging fruit has been picked. Now they're running into reality," Steven Schier, a Carleton College political scientist, said of Democrats. "To push these things any farther is tough."
Changing course in Iraq is the most puzzling of their unfulfilled promises, and the one drawing the most public attention. A symbolic House vote and two in the Senate repudiating President Bush's plan to send an additional 21,500 troops has brought the party no closer to consensus on how to stop the buildup or scale back the war.
The issue is already dividing Democrats, and threatens to poison the spirit of bipartisanship that would be needed for them to cut deals on topics that seem ripe for compromise, including immigration, education and energy.
Democratic leaders say it's too early to judge them on an unfinished agenda, and contend they should get credit for using their power to demand answers from Bush and highlight his administration's flawed policies.
Meanwhile, they're cultivating an image of diligence. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record), D-Nev., recently announced he would cut short the customary two-week Easter break and call the Senate back to work after just one week.
"We cannot move as fast as the House. We have rules here that simply do not allow that," Reid said, adding that even the usually sacrosanct monthlong August recess is "not automatic" this year.
Democrats keep a running tally of Iraq war hearings — more than 100 between the House and Senate so far — and cite investigations that have prompted the administration to change its ways.
Bush's team "is being much more responsive in a whole range of areas because of the new Democratic majority and the energy and aggressiveness of its committees in overseeing the administration," Brookings' Mann said.
And Bush did sign into law the new name for Vermont's White Rocks National Recreation Area. It's now the Robert T. Stafford White Rocks National Recreation Area, in honor of the late Republican lawmaker who represented the state in Congress from 1971 to 1989.
Congressional gridlock is rarely a bad thing.
"Given those constraints, Mann added, Democrats "are off to a reasonably good start."
At doing what? ...Copy post #2.
Leadership' is a b*tch when you have no principles!
Well, gas has gone up from $2.15 to $2.50 per gallon in this area. My daughter lost her bigger raise she had been promised because minimum wage will take care of it. My wife lost her job as a greeter in the mall because the mall will not pay the new minimum wage. Another daughter decided not to work here on holiday even though her old company in the mall needed her because Fat Ed Rendell muscled through an occupancy tax which will take the first $52 that anyone earns. The Pennsylvania University system has announced an 8% hike in tuition next year, roughly double the rate of inflation.
George Soros has tripled the number of senators and congreement he owns. Congress is all ready to hand citizenship to 12 million illegal aliens and their families and who know how many relatives? The Dow has suffered its biggest loss since the week after September 11, 2001.
That's quite a list of accomplishments!
PLEASE do this, libdumbs, because it will be seen by the vast majority of the public for what it is: Playing politics in a time of war. Please please please keep jumping the shark!!!
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