rebuttal to: the democrats are sunk
by Cameron Contois
Published: February 7, 2008
Ted Hamilton’s original article: “the democrats are sunk. life preserver anyone?“
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It’s easy to overlook the accomplishments of the 110th Congress, lead by Democratic majorities. They don’t use fear and ridiculous color coded terror alerts to scare the American people into supporting their policies. They don’t boast outrageous goals like banning gay marriage forever in order to save America from marital excesses. Because, as we all know, gay marriage inevitably leads to people wedding goats and snakes, etc. So, having not equipped itself with the grandiose ridiculousness of the past, it’s easy for this Congress’ successes to go unnoticed. However, the 110th Congress has been a success.
Congress passed ethics and lobbyist reform legislation which strengthens limits on those free “gifts” lobbyists just love to give, from the bottom of their hearts, to congressmen. It also expands lobbying disclosure requirements, meaning lobbyists report quarterly on who they are giving contributions to. Although earmarks are not banned from bills, under this legislation they all must be listed. These are the first steps to getting honesty and integrity back into the government.
The Democratic Congress also passed the long overdue minimum wage increase. It’s the first minimum wage increase in a decade. Apparently, the Republican Congress had never heard of inflation.
Congress passed the Implementing the 9/11 Commission Recommendations Act of 2007. This makes it harder for those pesky terrorists to sneak into the country. It works to secure our mass transit systems and creates better communication between local, state and federal officials. This is a much better way to keep America safe than, say, going to war with Iraq.
Also, there has been funding increases to equip our troops with the latest weapons, while also funding the department of defense to help offset the personal needs of our wary and overused armed forces. Troops got a 3.5 percent raise, which was .5 percent more than Bush wanted.
The Congress passed legislation to increase the number of stem cells that could be used for research, finally striking down the stupid, religious inspired ban on their use which has stilted stem cell research in the United States for years. It was a nice try, but Bush vetoed it. Really, how can you blame the Democratic Congress for the fact that Bush can’t separate church from state and actually believes frozen embryos are babies?
Bush also vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have increased funding for the State Children’s Health Program. Bush claimed the program was being expanded beyond its purpose of helping dirt-poor kids; it would help kind-of-poor kids, too. Somehow that would lead to socialized medicine for everyone, including illegal immigrants. Oh, and by the way, the Senate had enough votes to override Bush’s veto; the House, however, fell short. Again, the bill failed because Bush is out of touch with the American people, not because Democrats didn’t give it their best effort.
I could go on and on with the laundry list of Democratic Congress accomplishments (”Democratic Accomplishments in the 110th Congress: A New Direction for America“) but Congressional approval of $70 billion in war spending, without a withdrawal date for the troops, must be mentioned. It must also be mentioned, however, that Bush held the upper hand, knowing that Congress wouldn’t leave our troops stranded without funding.
So who undermined the withdrawal of troops from Iraq? Democrats or the President and his band of filibustering Republicans? (By the way, isn’t that the same filibuster the Republicans were, a few years ago, trying to get rid of? How times have changed.) The fact is that until we have a like minded executive branch, the President will do everything in his power to keep us in this endless war.
The Democratic Congress has been greatly successful in dealing with the real problems Americans face, in spite of being consistently undermined by Bush and his Republican allies. So how do we solve the impasse? Elect fewer Republicans, Libertarians and assorted whack jobs, and elect more Democrats.
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Ted Hamilton’s original article: “the democrats are sunk. life preserver anyone?“
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