Posted on 06/02/2007 10:48:35 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Under a portrait of George Washington and a sign proclaiming "A New Direction," Democratic lawmakers boasted of their accomplishments their first five months running Congress.
Their press release covered two pages.
Yet most people might be excused for hardly noticing, except maybe those who are paid the minimum wage or who live in hurricane-ravaged areas.
Upon taking control in January, Democrats led efforts to increase the minimum wage for the first time in a decade and to force modest spending increases in hurricane and drought relief, children's health care and a few other areas.
Beyond that, the majority party has found it difficult or impossible to redirect federal policies, thwarted by a veto-wielding Republican president whose congressional allies hold nearly half the Senate seats and a significant portion of the House.
To the frustration of their liberal base, Democrats have been unable to mandate a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq. Nor have they found a way to boost federal support for embryonic stem cell research, rewrite tax and spending priorities or force the removal of an embattled attorney general.
Their promises to reduce student loan rates, overhaul lobbying practices and put in place recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission are works in progress, at best.
They have largely abandoned their push to allow the government to negotiate prescription drug prices for the Medicare program in the face of Bush's opposition.
Democratic voters might be disappointed, but they should not be surprised, say congressional scholars and political strategists. While Democrats can set the legislative agenda and investigate the Bush administration, they "don't have the power" to determine the results, said Ronald Walters, a political scientist at the University of Maryland.
Lacking the two-thirds majorities needed in both chambers to override a veto, Democrats must make the most of their abilities to pressure the White House, hold oversight hearings and drive the toughest bargains they can, Walters said.
"Democrats are in a negotiating framework consistently," Walters said. "That's where they will be as long as the president has a veto pen."
Even the Democrats' most clear-cut legislative victory — raising the minimum wage to $7.25 from the current $5.15 over three years — has questionable impact.
Only a small fraction of workers earns the minimum wage, and Democrats had to buy Republican support with $4.84 billion in new tax cuts for small businesses.
Still, raising the minimum wage has value as a fairness issue, some Democrats say. They urge the party's constituents to welcome such symbolic and incremental victories in a divided government.
Having Democrats control the House and Senate "makes a huge difference, given the set of challenges the country faces and given that so little was done in the last Congress," said former Democratic Rep. Tim Roemer of Indiana, a member of the Sept. 11 commission.
Democrats have shifted the debate in important ways that may lead to policy changes in this Congress or the next, he said.
On Iraq, Roemer said "it's no longer a question of if" the United States will adopt a withdrawal timeline, only a question of when.
Citing global warming, he said Congress is no longer seriously debating whether the problem exists — as it did last year under Republican control_ but considering how to address it.
Veteran Democrats say party supporters must understand that legislative victories often will come at the margins of major issues.
Consider children's health care, a Democratic campaign priority. Congress in May added an immediate $650 million to the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Budget bills for 2008 call for an extra $50 billion, but the effort must survive the appropriations process, and Bush has pledged to veto measures he considers too costly.
Democratic leaders hailed the increases for the children's program, even as they acknowledged the proposed new spending would hardly fill the health insurance gaps.
The change in control of Congress is important, "but what it doesn't mean is the Democrats can impose their will," said Florida Democrat Bob Graham, a former senator, governor and presidential candidate. "It does mean the Democrats can set the agenda and force issues" to the forefront, such as a minimum wage raise that Republicans had blocked for years.
Perhaps the most dramatic change in Congress involves the rising number and intensity of hearings into alleged misdoings by the administration.
Subjects of investigations include contracting practices in Iraq; the use of prewar intelligence; the firings of federal prosecutors; the use of warrantless wiretaps; the friendly fire death in Afghanistan of Army Cpl. Pat Tillman; and the use of political e-mail accounts by White House officials.
The "amazing lack of oversight of White House programs and initiatives" that existed under GOP-controlled congresses has ended, Walters said.
Some Democratic activists say it is important to remind voters that Bush and congressional Republicans play a central role in legislative impasses.
"It's hard to see a lot getting done," said lobbyist Steve Elmendorf, a former top House Democratic aide. "I don't know if Bush has the juice to deliver the Republican votes he needs" even on issues the president strongly backs, such as a proposed overhaul of immigration laws, he said.
At the end of this Congress, Elmendorf predicted, Democrats will have "a record of fiscal responsibility" and voters will understand that they could not overcome Bush's resistance on matters such as embryonic stem cell research.
As for the Iraq war, he said, even if Democrats can't force a withdrawal deadline, "the message that Americans are getting is: Democrats want change, Republicans don't."
The MoveOn.media is not satisfied.
Bummer... for the dems. :-)
Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., talks about House Democrats' accomplishments prior to Memorial Day during a Capitol Hill news conference in Washington in this May 25, 2007, file photo. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook, File)
2 words, Nancy.
ear marks
They used to point fingers and that was there policy, now that there the Majority they still point fingers and get nothing done
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., right, looks toward a photo of an iceberg, as Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, June 1, 2007, to discuss global warming. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
methinks a chill wind be blowing up Nancy's skirt these days.. she could use a little global warming to take the sting out.
Once again, the Democrats' ineptitude is all Bush's fault! These people need a new diaper to cry in.
AP is disappointed.
So hurricane ravaged areas are now fixed because the Democrats are in charge? Isn’t that special? I thought New Orleans was a quagmire BECAUSE the Democrats were in charge, paying for a non-existent police force (the money went SOMEWHERE but Nagin said they weren’t actual officers), the levees were not maintained, Gov. Blanco refused to deploy the National Guard in Louisiana because she didn’t want to put good people in harms way (damn, military!). And don’t get me started on Jefferson (D- crook) and his frozen assets.
“boasted of their accomplishments their first five months running Congress. “
There’s a misspelling there. It should read:
“boasted of their accomplishments their first five months ruining Congress. “
Ending the war in Iraq is necessary to the Democrats because they need the money.........getting our troops home out of harms way is a ruse, a smoke screen of enormous proportions.
The Widdle Democrats Want Der Mommies!
What a MSM apology pile for the Communists Democrats.
But take heart Libs and your willing allies in the Media:
We can't get GW Bush to act like a Republican.
¿Entiende?
Sometimes dogs catch cars. But even when they do, they don’t have the skills to drive it.
Pelosi and her host of Liberals have a lower approval rating than our gringo El Presidente Bush.
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