Posted by
on Tuesday, January 02, 2007 9:22:52 AM
Typical, isn't it? The Democrats have not even gained the majority, officially, and Pelosi and Company are already pushing an effort to shut the GOP out of having any saywith legislation in their "first 100 hours."
As they prepare to take control of Congress this week and face up to campaign pledges to restore bipartisanship and openness, Democrats are planning to largely sideline Republicans from the first burst of lawmaking.
House Democrats intend to pass a raft of popular measures as part of their well-publicized plan for the first 100 hours. They include tightening ethics rules for lawmakers, raising the minimum wage, allowing more research on stem cells and cutting interest rates on student loans.
But instead of allowing Republicans to fully participate in deliberations, as promised after the Democratic victory in the Nov. 7 midterm elections, Democrats now say they will use House rules to prevent the opposition from offering alternative measures, assuring speedy passage of the bills and allowing their party to trumpet early victories.
Nancy Pelosi, the Californian who will become House speaker, and Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, who will become majority leader, finalized the strategy over the holiday recess in a flurry of conference calls and meetings with other party leaders. A few Democrats, worried that the party would be criticized for reneging on an important pledge, argued unsuccessfully that they should grant the Republicans greater latitude when the Congress convenes on Thursday.
The episode illustrates the dilemma facing the new party in power. The Democrats must demonstrate that they can break legislative gridlock and govern after 12 years in the minority, while honoring their pledge to make the 110th Congress a civil era in which Democrats and Republicans work together to solve the nation's problems. Yet in attempting to pass laws key to their prospects for winning reelection and expanding their majority, the Democrats may have to resort to some of the same tough tactics Republicans used the past several years.
Democratic leaders say they are torn between giving Republicans a say in legislation and shutting them out to prevent them from derailing Democratic bills.
"There is a going to be a tension there," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), the new chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "My sense is there's going to be a testing period to gauge to what extent the Republicans want to join us in a constructive effort or whether they intend to be disruptive. It's going to be a work in progress."
House Republicans have begun to complain that Democrats are backing away from their promise to work cooperatively. They are working on their own strategy for the first 100 hours, and part of it is built on the idea that they might be able to break the Democrats' slender majority by wooing away some conservative Democrats.
It won't be easy to woo the "Blue Dog Dems" over to the gOP's side, but one certain bills they might be able to if they make the right case for such a defection. The minimum wage bill should be one of the first things the GOP tries to work an end run on. Arizona passed a new minimum wage hike in November, and employers here are already grumbling about it. Many businesses that sought holiday time employees have already handed out those final paychecks, and sent those people on their merry way. They can't retain that workforce because they can't afford to.
The problem that so many people in favor of such hikes keep forgetting is that when the wages go up, businesses have to compensate for that. While fools like Pelosi and her Democratic cronies think that their forcing businesses to take in less profits by forcing them to pay their employees more, they fail to take into account that the majority of businesses in the US are privately-owned, small, mom-and-pop businesses. Those businesses, to compensate for the wage hike, have to charge more for goods and services. When minimum wage gets a boost, the cost of living goes up, as well.
Yeah, it'd be great if everyone around the country could earn $10 or $20 an hour. And it'd be great if employers could afford to do that. Most can't. The minimum wage is supposed to be an entry-level wage. And every time the wage is upped, and the price of goods and services go up, people begin complaining that, once again, they can't afford to live on their wage. It's a neverending cycle. You're not supposed to spend your life stuck at the same wage. As you improve as an employee, you get raises. As you improve yourself, through schooling and training, you move onto other better jobs. And that means your wage imroves in the workforce. That's how it works, and it doesn't need more intereference from the government by jacking up the entry-level wage.
That's the case the GOP has to make to the "Blue Dogs" if they're going to get a few defectors to stop a bill like this, or any other that they recognize as being non-essential for the country. The saving grace the GOP should keep in mind is that these moderate/conservative Democrats were the ones who put their foot down on Pelosi when she started manuevering in November. They're not going to stand for her out-of-the-mainstream, liberal ideas.
Publius II