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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2007-01-05

Just So We're Clear On Their Priorities

Newly minted Speaker of the House Pelosi has outlined her very specific goals for the first 100 hours of this Congress. In case you missed them, here they are:

:Ethics Reform (already voted out today)
:Enact the 9/11 Commission Recommendations (watch this space closely)
:Increase the Federal Minimum Wage
:Allow Federal Funding of Embryonic Stem Cell Research
:Negotiate for Lower Prescription Drug Prices
:Cut the Interest Rates on federal Student Loans
:Increase Taxes on Oil Companies

Those are their priorities.

It is easy to argue that this is a much more ambitious agenda than the Republicans managed to put forward after the 2004 elections; in fact, that's probably why the Democrats get to make the agenda this time around.

But notice that none of their priorities involve protecting the American people, empowering intelligence or law enforcement to do their jobs better, or providing for the military in order to facilitate their missions overseas.

"But what about enacting the 9/11 Commission?" you might ask. Like I said, watch this space. I'm willing to go way out on a limb here and predict that the Democrats will very specifically cherry pick the 9/11 Commission's recommendations in ways that increase oversight and bureaucracy and limit the power of the Executive. And, by the way, probably have very little to do with protecting the American people.

They, like John Edwards, have put forward an ambitious agenda which is one terrible event away from being completely irrelevant.

Hopefully, somebody out there (maybe someone with a bully pulpit. .. .ahem!) will keep everybody focused on the real ballgame, not this third-tier politicking.

Yeah, I'm not holding my breath, either.
Posted by: Michael / 1/05/2007 01:40:00 AM

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