More Advice To The Democrats

The American Prospects' Robert Reich has the standard advice for the Dems...

Some Democrats want to expose the malfeasance and nonfeasance of the Bush Administration -- find out who really knew what and when with regard to weapons of mass destruction, Abu Ghraib, Katrina, payoffs to Abramoff, and all the other rot. That’s understandable, but it would be far better if Democrats used their new-found power to lay out a new agenda for America...

...[The] public and the media are already suffering from outrage fatigue. And the Democrats wouldn’t be credible, anyway. It will be easy for Republicans to dismiss their efforts as more of the same old partisan bickering...

...Instead of dwelling on what’s gone wrong, Democrats should focus on what to do right. For example:

• Cut the Alternative Minimum Tax so it doesn’t slam the middle class, and roll back the Bush tax cuts for the rich.
  

• Open Medicare to every American who needs affordable health insurance, and use Medicare’s resulting huge bargaining clout to reduce drug prices.
  

• Bar companies from deducting from their corporate income taxes any executive pay in excess of $1 million a year.
  

• Raise the minimum wage and index it to inflation.
  

• Reform Social Security by eliminating the ceiling on payments so people earning over $100,000 a year pay the same percent of their income as everyone else.
  

• Raise fuel economy standards, eliminate subsidies to the oil companies, and use the money instead for basic R&D in non-carbon based energy.
  

• Renegotiate the Kyoto protocols on greenhouse gas emissions.
  

• And while we’re at it, reaffirm the Geneva Conventions.

Democrats should use their new-found clout to offer ideas for tackling America’s hard problems. Even if these bills get vetoed by the President, at least they set out an agenda for where the nation ought to be heading.

That’s what the election of 2008, which started yesterday, ought to be about.

We will be hearing variations of this alot in the coming weeks.

I think everyone agrees that the main priority should be a forward-looking legislative agenda (because our country's problems are too vast to keep putting off), but I am sick of this "investigations will make them look partisan!" nonsense. They were elected in part because people were upset and disturbed by the actions of the current administration... Impeachment is already off the table and Rep. Pelosi and Sen. Reid are on the record as promising to run a tight, controlled ship. I doubt, however, Americans will mind a few targeted hearings (read: not the fishing expeditions of a 1,000 subpoenas the GOP went on throughout the '90s) to get to the bottom of things that the Republicans have covered up for the past few years: why we went to war in Iraq, how our tax money has been spent there/war profiteering, global warming, misuse of intelligence, etc.

These are not insignificant matters. For the Republicans-- who spents millions of dollars investigating Clinton's sexual behavior and then covered up for Bush-- to get angry at such hearings only further reiterates why we are lucky that voters threw them out of power.

Looking to the future should be the priority, but if we sweep the past under the rug without first holding it up to the light, we are ensuring that future administrations will attempt the same radical paths. The Republicans and the media are preemptively dismissing any plans by the Democrats for oversight and accountability as "payback time", but I hope the Democrats and the public know better. It is Congress' job to do this stuff. The only people arguing otherwise are those worried about what uncomfortable facts may come to light on the other end of a Democratic subpoena.

As for the comment that the Democrats wouldn't be "credible" on these matters, what does that mean? Who would be credible? The Republicans? President Bush? James Baker and his fancy little commission? I do take comfort in noting that many-- but not all, natch-- of the people saying these things are the same people who said the Democrats couldn't take both houses of Congress, writing story after story of the genius of the (now-failed) Republican strategy. These same people are now raising the bar so high for the Democrats that even the slightest misstep will be seen as a monumental failure.

I'd urge Dems to heed this advice on legislation and bipartisan support. But ignore the rest.