Stating the politically obvious
As a new Congressional session gets underway, the political rhetoric is high on both sides these days.
With the Democrats in control of Congress for the first time in 12 years, and a president still in office who they strongly oppose, the rhetoric is likely to be even more intense than usual.
We’re already seeing it with the Democrats’ First Hundred Hours agenda. House Speaker Pelosi started the new session running, pushing through six bills as fast as possible, on issues important to many Americans, like ethics reform, minimum wage, and embryonic stem cell research.
The Democrats’ strategy with this agenda is to show the American people that they are the party that will accomplish something, and that they will accomplish the peoples’ work faster than the Republicans did while they were in control of Congress.
While the Democrat agenda sounds favorable on the surface, and very noble and praiseworthy, especially considering the speed in which many of these bills were passed, looking deeper into the rhetoric reveals there are a lot of things left unsaid on the Democrat’s side.
First of all, many of these bills were passed in one house and not the other.
Following the legislative process, the bills need to be passed in both houses, and then discrepancies need to be negotiated. This process could take many months before the bills are actually made law.
Second, rhetoric of the Democrats’ success with these first hundred hours leaves out the possibility of President Bush vetoing some of these bills.
Bush has already made it clear that he does not support embryonic stem cell research, or the prescription drug bill which allows the government to get involved in negotiated drug prices with drug companies. A veto on any of these bills will further set back the Democrat agenda.
Third, once these bills become law, Americans won’t see immediate changes.
The government always works by phasing in bills so that the full effect isn’t felt until years down the line.
With the minimum wage bill, for instance, the minimum wage won’t reach $7.25/hour for a couple years after its passage.
Another thing to point out is that some of these bills were passed with “bipartisan support,” such as the ethics bill.
Just because Democrats and Republicans worked together on a few bills does not mean this new Congress will always work together. In every Congress there are bills passed that both parties support overwhelmingly. This is nothing new.
Points of contention between the two parties will still be the same old issues: Iraq, taxes and homeland security.
Don’t expect the parties to be working together on any of these issues. We’re already seeing squabble between the parties over Bush’s plan of sending more soldiers to Iraq.
So be careful trying to sort out the rhetoric of this new Congress.
On the surface, it appears as though the Democrats are leading a new Congress, and that the parties are working together, but once the optimism of the recent election fades, Congress will quickly return to the way it’s always done things.
The real test will be seeing how Democrats lead their Congress in the coming months, if it will look any different than previous Congresses.
And for Republicans, the test is seeing how committed they are to their values and agenda, if they are going to fight for the issues they believe in or if they are going to step aside and let the Democrats control the agenda for awhile.
Dennis is a senior studying management communication.
Columnists' opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of The Spectrum