What’s at Stake, Part II

Reversal, Redress and Repeal

lThe 2000 Presidential election was the closest - electoral vote-wise - in history, was it not. If not, it was the first that was decided by a decision of the Supreme Court. By any standard the 43rd President was 'selected' by the slimmest of margins, had to accept the slimmest of mandates. However Karl Rove saw an opportunity to mythologize the attacks of 9-11 into justifying the most extreme and divisive political agenda in history. The most grievous of these should not be subjected to reversal, redress and repeal:

1. Raise the minimum wage. The current federal minimum stands at $5.15 and has not been raised in many years. Republicans did propose a very substantial, two-dollar increase, but tied it to tax cuts for the upper crust, something the Democrats naturally opposed, and the legislation failed. Wage levels are the traditional domain of the Democrats; a Democratic Congress shouldn’t have much trouble working out a reasonable minimum wage increase that President Bush will sign.
2. Investigate. It has been threatened, both by Pelosi and Henry Waxman, who is in line to chair the Judiciary Committee, that the Democrats will launch Congressional investigations of everything from the Iraq War to the Abramoff scandal to 9/11. These investigations are good in moderation-it is important that the American people know the true conduct of the Bush Administration in these anxious times.
3. Implement true oversight in the Iraq War. For much of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, the Johnson and Nixon Administrations had free reign over conduct in Vietnam, including secret bombings in Cambodia and a fraudulent Gulf of Tonkin ‘incident.’ The Bush Administration, due to the unilateral nature of the war, has been able to conduct the war without much input from Congress at all, which has essentially rubber-stamped all of the spending bills the president has wanted. It is time to restore true Congressional oversight to a war that has grown increasingly unpopular.
4. Restore sanity to discussions of constitutional amendments and related issues. In the past year or so, amendments prohibiting flag-burning and gay marriage came close to passing Congress, and President Bush vetoed an important piece of stem-cell research legislation. While Republicans have effectively used these ’social issues’ to galvanize their base, a Democratic Congress should restore pragmatism and rationality to these ‘grandstanding issues,’ which have little relevance to the real work of Congress.
5. Restore fiscal discipline to legislation. The federal budget deficit is out of control and deficit projections seem to grow more and more astronomical every year. Because President Bush has never met a spending bill he does not like-his only veto in six years was used on bipartisan stem-cell legislation-spending is out of control. The Republicans have clearly shown an unwillingness to rein in spending, so the task now falls to potentially a Democratic Congress. This is a good opportunity to Pelosi and Reid to show that the Democrats can be the party of financial austerity.
6. Repeal tax cuts for the wealthy.

In short, under Nancy Pelosi, the Congressional agenda has to repeal the 9-11 dividend devised by Karl Rove and restore a level playing field for our American middle class.

~ by vigilante on November 6, 2006.