WP,pg1: Democrats to Push Pocketbook Issues: Minimum Wage, College Costs

[DeepModem Mom]

Democrats to Push Pocketbook Issues
Minimum Wage, College Costs Top Agenda; Party Less Unified on Tax Reform, Energy
By Amy Goldstein and Lyndsey Layton
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, November 19, 2006; Page A01

After retrieving control of Congress for the first time in a dozen years, Democrats will set out to redefine the domestic agenda through policies they say would address the economic needs of middle- and working-class Americans.

Striving for a few quick legislative victories in January and longer-term goals whose details -- and viability -- are not yet certain, Democratic lawmakers want to shift the dialogue on Capitol Hill to workers' pay, college tuition, health-care costs, retirees' income and other issues that touch ordinary families.

Their success is not assured. Democrats will hold a tenuous 51 to 49 majority in the Senate, where Republicans and the Bush administration will be well-positioned to thwart their legislation, and Democrats in the House already are showing signs of division. Democrats will face a conflict, too, between the cost of some of their policies and their pledge to tighten federal spending rules.

Still, key Democrats interviewed in recent days portrayed their strategy as an attempt to do several things at once: distinguish themselves from the outgoing Republican majority, heed voters' messages from the midterm elections, and lay groundwork for the 2008 presidential campaign, in which they predict the widening income gap in the United States will be a prominent theme....

***

The broad appeal to the middle class is not the only thread running through Democrats' ambitions. The party will get its first chance in years, for instance, to push views on energy and the environment that diverge sharply with those of the White House and congressional Republicans....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/18/AR2006111801001.html#

[bluestateguy]

1. On higher education issues:

Cut off federal funds for universities that use legacy admissions.

[antigop]

2. Uh, how about healthcare????

Everyone I know (even those with insurance) are worried about healthcare.

[Jackpine Radical]

3. Health care is the whale in the bathtub.

Almost anything the Dems do that would actually make sense--that is, anything that isn't a massive giveaway to the healthcare/insurance lobby, will generate a radioactive meltdown that will make Chernobyl seem like a phosphorescent watch dial.

[antigop]

4. Precisely why they should fix it

Fix it -- and set themselves up for 2008.

[Jackpine Radical]

5. Yes, but carefully. The healthcare industry accounts for 15%

of GDP, probably exceeded only by defense spending & the illegal drug trade. That's a mighty big pile of dollars to antagonize all at once. Remember Harry & Louise? That whole devastatingly successful campaign was rolled out against the Clintons' relatively modest & pro-industry proposal.