Well, the Dems came in loudly proclaiming their intention to hit the ground running, and accomplish all manner of things within the first 100 hours. Would there be any interest in maintaining a running log of any significant accomplishements the Dem controlled Congress might reasonably claim responsibility for?
So far, I’ve seen mention of a couple of “ethics-related” changes to internal Congressional rules. Didn’t strike me as landmark achievments, but may be a start.
With the noise they were making, it seems to me that they are going to want to point to some significant “things” or risk being viewed as having squandered their opportunity/abandoned their promises.
(BTW - does anyone know exactly what “100-hours” they were referring to? From when til when?)
As others have noted, Nan Pelosi is ushering Congress through passing plenty of good legislation, and right on track, too. Plus the poor dears on Capitol Hill are being forced to work forty-hour weeks, just like ordinary working stiffs like me! Oh, the humanity!
Republicans are fighting the Democrats’ advances, with Rep. Harold Rogers (R-Kentucky) cursing the new funding bill for homeland security, claiming it’s no more than political posturing. (This from the party that brought us legislation prohibiting marriage and flag desecration!) And former Senator Conrad Burns (R-Montana) has already sent his résumé to his choice lobbying firm! Burns, you might remember, lost reëlection largely because of his ties with corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Some people never learn!
H.Res. 6, passed last week, setting the rules of the House for the 110th Congress, has made pay-as-you-go the rule of the House - that is, you can’t raise spending without cutting other spending or raising new revenue.
H.R. 1, which passed the House yesterday, will implement the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations.
And as spazattak says, they’re taking up the minimum wage today, which will make it 3 out of 6 of their stated agenda.
Prescription drugs, energy independence, and college costs are still ahead.
Plus they’ve added a bunch of ethics rules, restricted earmarks, and stuff.
I believe that the offical “100 hours” clock started yesterday (Tuesday), so the Dems are half-way through it by the end of today, and have now passed 3 of the 6 bills they promised to pass. They look to be on pace to me.
Looks like they took action on stem cell research.
As one tending liberal/Dem, I’m glad to see they are at least making progress in the direction they said they were going to go. We’ll have to see whether they can follow-up their initial actions and get anything meaningful enacted.
And then, if the can do anything to hurry this Iraq debacle to a rapid conclusion, I will begin to have faith in the system. But I’m not keeping my fingers crossed…
And today, the House voted to give Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices with the pharma companies. So that leaves energy independence and college costs - although according to some reckonings I’ve read (no link handy), stem cell research was part of the 100 hours agenda, but energy independence wasn’t, though they expect to work on that shortly after the first 100 hours.
Stem cell research is sure to get vetoed, though, and it doesn’t look like they would have the 2/3rds to override that veto. I don’t know if Bush would veto the Medicare bill, but that doesn’t have strong enough support for an override either. I wonder if the public will take it out on Bush or the Democrats if those initiatives don’t happen.
Assuming the Democrats voted unanimously to override the veto, wouldn’t it be a case of “the Democrats passed it, the President vetoed it, and the Republicans refused to help override the veto” – placing the onus entirely on the part of Mr. Bush and the GOP?
Of course, that’s excluding the revisionist spin from Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and the usual right-wing media…