What will they do?
We have already seen a list of Democratic priorities that may be enacted if and when liberals wield power after the midterms. But here is some more from a recent Newsweek piece profiling a Dem majority:
Dingell is careful to say he is not out to get George W. Bush, or the Republicans, and insists he will extend his hand to his GOP colleagues and conduct “oversight thoughtfully and responsibly.” He says “there’s no list” of things he wants to investigate. But in the next breath, he quickly ticks off a list of things he wants to investigate: The Bush administration’s handling of port security and the threat of nuclear smuggling; computer privacy; climate change; concentration of media ownership; the new Medicare Part D program, which he calls a “massive scandal,” and the secret meetings of Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force. “This is a hardheaded administration,” Dingell says. “So we’ll probably have lots of hearings.”
The House of Representatives is full of John Dingell Democrats—exiled committee chairmen awaiting the day they can reclaim the center chair on the dais. All carry lists—if only in their heads—of issues and outrages they believe Republicans have failed to probe because such questions would be politically embarrassing to the president. Henry Waxman of California is another Democratic old-timer whose ire never dims. A tireless investigator, he’s in line to head the Government Reform Committee, and plans to take aim at Halliburton and alleged rip-offs and contract abuse in Iraq. Then there’s Charles Rangel, the New York congressman who’s never met a cable show he didn’t like. He is set to take over the Ways and Means Committee, and wants to take a hard look at the Bush tax cuts. John Conyers of Michigan has waited for years to head the Judiciary Committee. He’s likely to convene hearings on the Patriot Act and domestic wiretapping. In the past, he has suggested the possibility of impeachment hearings for President Bush. “When the Clinton administration was in office, there was no accusation too small for the Republicans to rush out the subpoenas,” Waxman says. “When Bush became president, there wasn’t a scandal big enough for them to ignore.”
The piece goes on to suggest that Nancy Pelosi will not allow her committee chairman to “turn the Capitol into a courthouse,” but I wonder how effective she can be in that endeavor. But even if she is successful in tempering the liberal urges of her chairmen, it bears noting what her alternative agenda will be:
The idea is to bring popular bills that the GOP has opposed to the floor of the House—a minimum-wage hike, prescription-drug reform—and dare Republicans to vote against them. It’s part of a larger package the Dems are billing as Six for ‘06, their version of the “Contract With America,” which the GOP used to win in ‘94. Demo-crats plan to enact the 9/11 Commission recommendations and screen all containers at U.S. ports, put more money into counterterror operations and increase benefits for veterans. At home, they say they’ll vote for tax deductions for college tuition and cut student-loan rates while raising taxes on big oil companies and corporations that move overseas.
In other words more spending and bigger government. The only people who can outspend this Republican Congress (although there have been some improvements in this area of late) are the Democrats.
This isn’t a Dems-are-worse-so-vote-Republican argument. It is simply a matter of fact.