Dems First 100 Hours

The Dems are in charge, and thus far, the agenda that they have set does not impress me. There isn't much that seems to be new. The majority of the bills now before Congress have already been in committees before the first of the year, and need to be voted on. Here's the list:

• Introducing legislation intended to curb the power of lobbyists.
• Committing to no new deficit spending.
• Fully enacting the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.
• Raising the minimum wage from $5.15/hour to $7.25/hour. Pelosi pledged that there will be no congressional pay raises until the minimum wage is upped.
• Enacting legislation allowing the government to negotiate with drug companies over prescription drug costs for Medicare.
• Promoting and increasing funding for stem cell research.
• Cutting interest rates on college loans by 50%.
• Beginning to roll back subsidies to oil companies.
• Fighting any attempt to privatize Social Security.

What I'm afraid of is that once they run out of steam on these issues, they will turn their attention to their thinly veiled threat of impeachment proceedings. This will be the wrong action to take in my opinion. The Dems ran on a platform of being different than Republicans, and this would be an opportune moment to show leadership instead of vindictiveness. After all, what would the point be (and political advantage) of trying to impeach a sitting lame-duck President? None, if you get right down to it. All this would do is be viewed as a revenge investigation for Clinton's impeachment investigation, and would further polarize the nation. Thus, this will probably be far down on the list for the Dems to start up

But the radicals are pushing for impeachment, cutting funding for the troops & bringing them home before the job is done, Patriot Act revisions/scrapping, terrorist rights, and the like. So far, these are not on Congress's short list. And that's going to anger the radicals. Already I've heard a sound bite of Cindy Sheehan carrying on about her pet project, and I know that's only going to be the beginning. After all, the Dems stirred up the radical left base of their party to get elected, and these people want satisfaction.

But what is missing is also important. Illegal immigration, for instance, is nowhere to be found on any agenda, and probably won't anytime soon. And if possible, it will be ignored until the next election. I also don't see any "America First" programs from the economic side either to protect the American worker from unfair and predatory business practices by other countries and companies. Lost in this is any comment on world affairs & policies concerning Iran, North Korea, al Qaeda, and any other threats to the United States.

Yes, it will be very interesting to see if the Dems are really the leaders that they tell everyone they are, or the same stinkers that got voted out of office twelve years ago...