This can of worms could get ugly.

Democratic Agenda?

quote:

THE DEMOCRATS HAVE NO AGENDA? Yesterday afternoon I did what I usually do after finishing my program; I checked in with the Godfather to see what was on his talk radio agenda. The Man was engaged in a riff about the partisan warfare between Democrats and Republicans and, as usual, doing a sensational job. One problem though. I could have sworn that I heard the words "The Democrats have no agenda." I'm probably mistaken there .. but just in case I wasn't driving through an area of high interference and actually heard him right .. I now offer an alternative opinion. The Democrats most certain DO have an agenda. It's just not an agenda that they are anxious to promote. The Democratic agenda can be succinctly stated in just a few words: Make Americans ever more dependent on government, and thus dependent on Democrats. There's bandwidth to fill, however, so we'll use a few more words to explain just what the Democrats want to accomplish. A significant part of the Democrat agenda is the war on individuality. This was is no fig newton of my imagination. Master Democrat Ted Kennedy has made reference to this war in just those terms. Following a New England Patriots Super Bowl win several years ago Kennedy stumbled up to the microphone to share in the celebration, there to praise the teamwork of the Patriots, so welcome at a time that we are engaged in a "war against individuality." So ... his words, not mine. The war on individuality goes hand-in-hand with the Democrats goal of increasing dependency on government. People who celebrate their individuality are people who are far more likely to become successful and independent. They follow their own dreams, not those of the masses; and in so doing they become more self sufficient and less dependent on government. In case you haven't noticed, Democrats aren't particularly fond of the idea of people becoming less dependent on government. There's another nasty little problem with the concept of individuality ... at least its a problem for Democrats. When you recognize (dare I say celebrate?) the concept of the individual, you then have to recognize that individuals have rights. Individual rights, not group rights. This would include the individual right to life, liberty and property. Democrats haven't yet made any objections they might have to the right to life apparent, but they take a back seat to nobody on their lack of respect for concepts of individual liberty and property rights. The one property right most troublesome to Democrats? That would be the right an individual has to the fruits of his labors. More of the Democratic agenda? Look to government schools. Our children must be "educated" (indoctrinated) by the government. All possible means must be pursued to keep these children out of private schools where the influence of government is muted. Now the Democrats know that they can't attempt to outlaw private schools, at least not yet; but they certainly can make it as hard as possible for a parents to pursue that option. School choice is a dead issue with Democrats. Vouchers? Forget it. It's just not going to happen. The government gets to decide where and how your children are going to be "educated," and that's that. Our children must be taught that American is great because of its government. If these children are allowed to escape the government schools for a private education there's that chance that they will be taught the dangerous notion that America is great because of the dynamic of free people working cooperatively and competitively in a system based on individual liberty and economic freedom. The concept of individual liberty is incompatible with the goal of making people more dependent on government. More of the Democrat agenda? How about socialized medicine? This is part and parcel of the effort to make people dependent on government. Personally, I think the Democrats have one this one. Socialized medicine in the United States is inevitable. Most Americans now believe that it is either the government's or their employer's responsibility to take care of their health needs. Last week I read you a story about some young high school athlete in Canada being put on a three-year waiting list for simple arthoscopic knee surgery. I had this surgery done five months ago. My waiting period? I saw the doctor for the first time on a Monday and the surgery was performed the following Thursday. Give the Democrats a chance to bring their socialized medicine to pass in our country and the wait will be months, if not years here. Socialized medicine is vitally important to Democrats. When you control a person's health care, you control that person. Besides .. .just think of the powerful election rhetoric socialized medicine will bring to Democrat politics: "If you elect Republicans or Libertarians they are going to make you pay for your own medical care." Then there's "soak the rich" tax policies. How can you say that the Democrats have no agenda when they have made it abundantly clear that they would like nothing more than to see taxes raised on the evil, filthy, nasty, ugly rich. These government dependency programs take cash, and what better way to raise cash then to appease the gods of envy by raising taxes on the hated top 1% of income earners? Is there more? You bet. Much more than I have time to present here. * Social Security. People must not own their own retirement accounts. The government must be in control. Control retirement, control the individual. * The United Nations. Weaken American by subjecting us to the whims of the international community through the world court and other UN institutions. * Talk Radio: Bring back the Fairness Doctrine to browbeat radio station owners into dropping conservative and libertarian talk radio shows. * Wealth confiscation: Levy a one-time tax on the outstanding balances in privately held retirement and pension accounts. * Control pension fund investments through government regulations ... a ploy to reward Democrat-friendly unions and businesses. * Shift more and more of the tax burden to the wealthiest Americans. Now that one-half of Americans have been relieved of the responsibility of paying any income taxes, give them a free ride on Social Security and Medicare taxes as well. * Paid "Family Leave." Make employers continue to pay the salaries of employees to take the 12-week family leave for a new baby, to care for a sick relative or just because they don't like to work on Mondays. * Government paid child care for all. Make the taxpayers pay for something that should be the responsibility of the parent. * Repeal the Second Amendment. Only the government should have guns. No agenda? That sounds like quite an agenda to me, and one that I'm not particularly comfortable with. All they need now is the power to enact their agenda .. and with continued Republican missteps, like their interference in the Schiavo matter, they may soon realize that goal.

Well politics would certainly be boring to discuss if everyone agreed

Having taken more public policy courses than I care to remember I think it is quite unfair to judge the agenda of the minority party when they don't have control of the legislative or executive branches, as they serve mainly as opposition to the agenda of the majority, by nature.

I may be going to a ball game with some prominent Dems this weekend, so I'll try to get some answers straight from the source, but I can guarantee 2 answers will be massive VA reform and increasing Pell Grants.

Where Boortz calls those issues attempts to increase dependency on government, I call the former getting veterans who served this country aid that we as a nation owe them for the sacrifices they made. There are still WWII vets in Illinois that are fighting to get medical benefits from injuries inflicted more than 60 years ago. The latter helps more kids ultimately become self-sufficient, productive & highly educated members of society by being able to afford the ever-increasing costs of college, which helps them individually and helps business by supplying a well trained workforce. Many educational grants also help students afford private educational opportunities as well, outside of any possible government endocrination. On primary education I think it's important to have all children going to school, so the only options are to have public schools or raise taxes even more to pay for kids to go to private primary schools. I'll agree though that teachers unions need less input in how to resolve spending issues, which are certainly a major problem.

Other things I would personally promote and I know many other lefties would advocate if we were setting the agenda:

-Better regulation of environmental standards, particularly focusing efforts on decreasing mercury levels in the water supply & air quality (especially in high density urban areas). Autism & asthma levels for children are becoming much more common and are greatly attributed directly to these levels. Part of resolving these problems would include increasing technology & research levels to find better methods for industry for the long term.

-Get rid of most of the bankruptcy bill! Usury used to be a big Christian no-no anyway if anyone remembers reading the Merchant of Venice! This bill greatly hurts consumers and does not address the actual causes of bankruptcy.

-More regulation of HMOs.

-Reinstate the ethics rules as they used to be.

-Big way to save tax money for everyone: start promoting better & healthier food standards. Promote stronger agricultural production of fruits & veggies and alter the way subsidies are given to make them available at a low cost. Medicare/Medicaid & private healthcare insurance costs will continue to grow as Americans eat poorly. This is a huge reason why our healthcare costs are much higher than the rest of the industrialized world.

-Al Qaeda isn't messing with drugs imported from Canada, they're safe. Medicaid & medicare bargaining for lower prices & being allowed to import helps seniors, the poor & the government budget all at the same time.

-Reform the defense budget and make the DoD more accountable for spending. Cut development for things like research for nuclear bunker busters that we don't need. Contrary to the class warfare rhetoric that is put out, the military is the main place where our tax dollars go, NOT entitlement programs.

-Strict balanced budget amendment, only exceptions should be during wartime, periods of economic downturn & national emergencies. Also legislation rules should be revised to deter pork barrel items (obviously something many legislators on either side would secretly hate to see go).

-Pay off foreign debt!!! Why pay taxes to have interest go to Saudi Arabia? These levels are beginning to rival any entitlement spending at the federal level (at work, I'll cite sources on this later).

-Get rid of the Faith-Based Initiative. The vast majority of it goes to Evangelical groups. Other than pleasing a certain voting bloc, why spend our money on this?

-Pass a bill that only American companies are eligible for local, state & federal government contracts, no more offshoring for companies who want to earn U.S. money and wont even pay taxes on thst income.

-Keep the estate tax for now, until we can afford to bring down taxes by reducing debt & spending. Revisions should be made to allow exceptions in cases where a family business is affected (not the majority of cases).

-Revise educational spending from the property tax system & cap annual property tax increases. Provide more equal educational funding for the public school system.

-Tie minimum wage to inflation, have federal government help states provide living wages & offer tax incentives to businesses to afford such costs.

Just a few off the top of my head, I strongly disagree with Boortz on government's role, as it is supposed to be an entity owned by & responsible to the citizens & serving their needs(granted in many cases it is not as connected as it should be, hence reform!) rather than an unattached entity seeking to make citizens dependant on it. The reality is without government services like public schools, many children simply wouldn't go to school.

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Dang, Wolverine's taking over my position for the Long-Winded-But-Well-Detailed-Post-Whore. Some great answers in there, to be sure. And I won't go into detail refuting Boortz's obvious straw man Conservative arguments, which is as old as sin - "The Dems. want you to depend entirely on the government! No freedom, no property, they're a bunch of fucking Commies, etc. etc." Honestly it gets old hearing the same bullshit argument that has very little if anything to do with the Democratic stance on pretty much any issue you choose.

I think in the most general terms, most Dems. love nothing better than to let capitalism reign, but they also want some fucking accountability. And they tend to see the fact that, if you give corporate shits enough room, they'll not hold themselves accountable to fucking anything whatsoever, provided that it does not hinder their bottom line ($). Of course some cases that is exactly what happens, but in others you tend to see nothing but corners being cut. Enron, the Midwest Power Outage, the Mutual Fund scam, Boston's Big Dig created by Bechtel are just a few examples of this that come to mind. But when you have just a bit of government intervention, well then you've finally got someone to answer to, and someone that will, in fact, make sure you do not cut corners.

Can government get too intrusive at times? Oh sure it can, and I'd be ignorant not to acknowledge that at times. But it seems to me that this monster that Boortz creates is some boogeyman where the government wants to control EVERYTHING you do, and the Dems. seemingly somehow fully support that.

Honestly I don't mind a bit of regulation on corporations. What I DO mind, however, is the personal citizen regulation that is seemingly occurring from this neocon Administration. If the corporations are crying about being a big regulated, well sometimes I really want to say - fucking get over it. You are NOT an individual, and although we pretty much fucked over our own laws long ago and pretty much gave corporations the same, if not more individual rights than we do citizens (i.e. we treat corporations more like people now), I'm much more concerned about conservative governments attempting to socially dictate what the fuck I do in my bedroom, what the fuck my public schools teach my kids in the science room and in the sex ed. courses, why they have a right to examine what books I'm checking out in a public library, and so on.

That personally concerns me much more than a corporation crying about not wanting regulation just how much fucking MTBE poison they are putting in my water and my wife's water which may eventually turn our future kid into the fucking elephant man. Pardon the fuck me, but I do think our health is of a bit of vital importance.


/rant

Sorry, back to the Democratic agenda. Wolverine hit it pretty good. But Senator Reid has put out an agenda of his own, should the filibuster thingy fall to the way side by Frist and Co., which I think is pretty damn good.

via DailyKos:

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As a matter of comity, the Minority in the Senate traditionally defers to the Majority in the setting of the agenda. If Bill Frist pulls the nuclear trigger, Democrats will show deference no longer. Invoking a little-known Senate procedure called Rule XIV, last week Democrats put nine bills on the Senate calendar that seek to help America fulfill its promise. If Republican's break the rules Democrats will use the rule to bring to the Senate floor an agenda that meets the needs of average Americans, such as lowering gas prices, reducing the cost of health care and helping veterans. "Across the country, people are worried about things that matter to their families - the health of their loved ones, their child's performance in schools, and those sky high gas prices," said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid. "But what is the number one priority for Senate Republicans? Doing away with the last check on one-party rule in Washington to allow President Bush, Senator Frist and Tom Delay to stack the courts with radical judges. If Republicans proceed to pull the trigger on the nuclear option, Democrats will respond by employing existing Senate rules to push forward our agenda for America." Democrats have introduced bills that address America's real challenges. (Details attached) 1. Women's Health Care (S. 844). "The Prevention First Act of 2005" will reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and abortions by increasing funding for family planning and ending health insurance discrimination against women. 2. Veterans' Benefits (S. 845). "The Retired Pay Restoration Act of 2005" will assist disabled veterans who, under current law, must choose to either receive their retirement pay or disability compensation. 3. Fiscal Responsibility (S. 851). Democrats will move to restore fiscal discipline to government spending and extend the pay-as-you-go requirement. 4. Relief at the Pump (S. 847). Democrats plan to halt the diversion of oil from the markets to the strategic petroleum reserve. By releasing oil from the reserve through a swap program, the plan will bring down prices at the pump. 5. Education (S. 848). Democrats have a bill that will: strengthen head start and child care programs, improve elementary and secondary education, provide a roadmap for first generation and low-income college students, provide college tuition relief for students and their families, address the need for math, science and special education teachers, and make college affordable for all students. 6. Jobs (S. 846). Democrats will work in support of legislation that guarantees overtime pay for workers and sets a fair minimum wage. 7. Energy Markets (S. 870). Democrats work to prevent Enron-style market manipulation of electricity. 8. Corporate Taxation (S. 872). Democrats make sure companies pay their fair share of taxes to the U.S. government instead of keeping profits overseas. 9. Standing with our troops (S. 11). Democrats believe that putting America's security first means standing up for our troops and their families "Abusing power is not what the American people sent us to Washington to do. We need to address real priorities instead -- fight for relief at the gas pump, stronger schools and lower health care costs for America's families," said Senator Reid.

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Whence September dusk grows crisper still,
with leaves all crimson conquered,
I yearn to shout,
and dance about,
and stick pickles in my honker...