the Dems’ plan
[this’ll turn it around for ‘em!]
USA Today - June 14, 2006
‘New Direction’ is new theme for Democratic plan Party leaders hope platform remaps ‘06 races By Kathy Kiely USA Today
WASHINGTON — Democratic House and Senate leaders are planning to
reduce the cost of student loans and prescription drugs, raise the
minimum wage and launch an effort to develop alternative fuels if
they win back control of Congress.
In an interview Tuesday with USA TODAY, House Minority Leader Nancy
Pelosi previewed the “New Direction for America” platform hammered
out by Democratic members of Congress, mayors and governors. She and
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid plan to formally unveil the plan
today.
“The American people need to know, if you win, what are your
priorities,” she said. Reid said the party is standing “with the
people we have always stood with: seniors, students and the
hardworking families of America. We intend to tackle the issues that
matter most.”
Democrats need to pick up 15 seats in November to regain control of
the House of Representatives. In the Senate, picking up six seats
would give Democrats control.
Pelosi discouraged comparisons with the Republican “Contract With
America,” a 10-point pledge that GOP lawmakers and candidates signed
six weeks before the 1994 election. That campaign manifesto helped
the GOP win control of both the House and Senate for the first time
in 40 years.
She said Democratic candidates will be “independent representatives
for their districts,” a nod to the differing views within the party
on issues such as abortion, gun control and Iraq. They are points on
which Pelosi of California and Reid of Nevada haven’t always agreed.
The Democrats’ plan would increase the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour
from $5.15, grant authority to the secretary of Health and Human
Services to negotiate lower prescription-drug prices with
pharmaceutical companies for those in Medicare’s drug program and cut
student-loan interest rates — rising to 6.8% in July — by half.
The agenda also calls for enacting recommendations of the 9/11
Commission, formed after the 2001 terror attacks, to boost national
security and funding for it, and for eliminating about $18 billion in
tax breaks and subsidies for oil companies. Pelosi said savings would
go to develop alternative fuels.
Rep. Thomas Reynolds, a New York Republican who chairs his party’s
House campaign committee, said Democrats’ agenda would amount to
“bumper sticker slogans.” He demurred when asked whether the GOP
plans to respond with a second contract.
The parties’ role reversal reflects the political landscape.
President Bush’s 38% approval rating in a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll last
weekend is encouraging Democrats to sound national campaign themes
and Republicans to avoid them. The same poll found 51% of registered
voters would vote for a Democratic congressional candidate; 39% for a
Republican.
Ex-House majority leader Dick Armey, a 1994 contract author, says his
former colleagues “need to do some serious substantive legislation”
to improve their electoral chances. Armey, a conservative Republican,
says his GOP colleagues are “wasting time” debating constitutional
amendments to ban gay marriage and flag burning. “They’re not doing
real work. They’re making political statements,” he says.