Shades of Blue: Advice from a Democrat to the new Democratic Majority
Article in the Nogales International
November, 2006
Bayard Brick, Tumacacori, Arizona
There will be a great temptation for the new Democratic majority in Congress to exact revenge on their Republican colleagues generally and the Administration particularly. Resist the temptation!
One of the reasons for your big win was that voters are fed up with partisanship in Congress. So the first thing to do is to publicly repudiate all the partisan schemes the Republicans used, such as the “majority of the majority.” That prevented any issue from coming to a vote unless a majority of the Republicans favored it and excluded the minority party in Senate-House conferences.
An overwhelming number of voters gave corruption, not Iraq, as their main reason for voting against Republicans. So the next item on the Democratic agenda should be to revitalize the ethics procedures in the Senate and House by greatly strengthening the investigation and enforcement powers of the two ethics committees..
There is one group, however, on which you can exact revenge, the lobbyists. Under the “K Street Project” lobbyists were told that if they gave funds to Democrats or Democratic causes, their special interests would not be catered to. As part of the reform, do everything you can to choke off the power of the Lobbyists and, as you promised in your campaigns, and legislate for the people not special interests.
Earmarks cater to the lobbyists. By all means follow through on requiring all members of Congress to attach their names to the appropriations they request for special interests. But go further and actually restrict the use of earmarks. If you retain the system at all, be sure the “pork” they represent actually benefits the voters and not special interests.
Then consider corruption in the Administration. Even before beginning the withdrawal or redeployment of our troops in Iraq, reinstate the auditing authority – dissolved by the Republicans – to monitor money spent on the reconstruction of Iraq. Investigate military and Iraq reconstruction spending and revert to equating war profiteering with treason.
Do also look into the waste and fraud that attended and still dogs Federal spending on helping the Gulf Coast recover from Hurricane Katrina.
Your own agenda is laudable. Raising the national minimum wage, allowing the government to bargain for prescription drug prices, an immigration reform act that respects family unification, creation of a guest worker program while increasing border security are all good things for the Nation. If you can also pursue the other suggestions offered and restore the liberties that have been trampled during the last six years, you will not only prove to the American people that you in fact offer better government, but also earn reelection in 2008.
