Learning To Be The Majority
Let me start with a shout out to Jason Everett Miller, one of the truly beyond-partisan thinkers at TPMCafe -- this post is about how the Democrats need to act with a congressional majority and the White House, but it is not a post about fierce partisanship.
The Democrats do, however, need to be more aggressive and they need to shed the tactics of a minority party.
Take the stimulus bill: The Democrats would like to use the government to support access to contraception, to fight the spread of STDs and to accomplish a host of other social goals. We also need to pass a stimulus spending package that should be about 5% of GDP, or more, say the economists, if it's going to be effective at all.
Now, the stimulus package can and should include our broader goals. Green energy, infrastructure repair, universal high speed and wireless internet access should all be in there. But, the stimulus package would really be better if it had some Republican support. These huge bills are always vulnerable to cries of "pork!" after all and it's better if both parties take some responsibility for what's in this. Besides, most of the Republicans agree that we need some stimulus too. By all rights they should vote for this because, heck, it's the right thing to do.
If we can give them some cover by removing STD prevention and birth control access from this particular bill, I say we do it. Yes, you can persuade me that both are stimulus because they reduce public health costs but it's a bit of a twisted argument and it'd be best for all involved if the stimulus bill contained stuff that most reasonable people would call stimulus without too much objection. Yes, I can be persuaded about STDs and birth control but... I see where people say it's not stimulus but rather a barely relevant add-on.
And here's where I get to the power of the majority and how we should act... We don't need to put STD prevention and birth control access in the stimuus bill because we have majorities in both houses and the presidency. We can introduce and pass a separate bill that would accomplish both over the objections of any socially conservative Republicans. We're the majority. Let's drop this from the stimulus and then pass it separately.
Tom Coburn is never going to help us pass bills that help prevent the spread of STDs. Fine. He might help us with the stimulus. And we no longer need his help for STDs (and never had it anyway) so let's drop this.
Minority parties have to resort to making big bills with everything in them so that they can pursue an agenda under the cover of something else. We're not the minority now. I'm not saying that we should compromise with the Republicans. But on issues like the stimulus package we can certainly clean up the bill and get some support from some of them. Then we can beat them in up and down votes on some of our other goals. Yes, they can use parliamentary procedure against us but the same was true when they had some pretty slim minorities in the last decade... they didn't care... with small majorities and the White House they broke many of our parliamentary tactics and we all complained about it. Their side will fold on some of these issues too.
It doesn't all have to be in the stimulus. The majority party should strive to make bills that can get bipartisan support but also shouldn't be afraid to pursue its goals simply because it is the majority. Republicans crafted No Child Left Behind and The Patriot Act to win bipartisan support and those bills passed. Then they did bankrupcty reform with only a few defectors from the Democratic side. We can make the stimulus our Patriot Act and then pass the birth control and STD bills as our bankruptcy reform. It can be done. We know. They did it.
The Democrats do, however, need to be more aggressive and they need to shed the tactics of a minority party.
Take the stimulus bill: The Democrats would like to use the government to support access to contraception, to fight the spread of STDs and to accomplish a host of other social goals. We also need to pass a stimulus spending package that should be about 5% of GDP, or more, say the economists, if it's going to be effective at all.
Now, the stimulus package can and should include our broader goals. Green energy, infrastructure repair, universal high speed and wireless internet access should all be in there. But, the stimulus package would really be better if it had some Republican support. These huge bills are always vulnerable to cries of "pork!" after all and it's better if both parties take some responsibility for what's in this. Besides, most of the Republicans agree that we need some stimulus too. By all rights they should vote for this because, heck, it's the right thing to do.
If we can give them some cover by removing STD prevention and birth control access from this particular bill, I say we do it. Yes, you can persuade me that both are stimulus because they reduce public health costs but it's a bit of a twisted argument and it'd be best for all involved if the stimulus bill contained stuff that most reasonable people would call stimulus without too much objection. Yes, I can be persuaded about STDs and birth control but... I see where people say it's not stimulus but rather a barely relevant add-on.
And here's where I get to the power of the majority and how we should act... We don't need to put STD prevention and birth control access in the stimuus bill because we have majorities in both houses and the presidency. We can introduce and pass a separate bill that would accomplish both over the objections of any socially conservative Republicans. We're the majority. Let's drop this from the stimulus and then pass it separately.
Tom Coburn is never going to help us pass bills that help prevent the spread of STDs. Fine. He might help us with the stimulus. And we no longer need his help for STDs (and never had it anyway) so let's drop this.
Minority parties have to resort to making big bills with everything in them so that they can pursue an agenda under the cover of something else. We're not the minority now. I'm not saying that we should compromise with the Republicans. But on issues like the stimulus package we can certainly clean up the bill and get some support from some of them. Then we can beat them in up and down votes on some of our other goals. Yes, they can use parliamentary procedure against us but the same was true when they had some pretty slim minorities in the last decade... they didn't care... with small majorities and the White House they broke many of our parliamentary tactics and we all complained about it. Their side will fold on some of these issues too.
It doesn't all have to be in the stimulus. The majority party should strive to make bills that can get bipartisan support but also shouldn't be afraid to pursue its goals simply because it is the majority. Republicans crafted No Child Left Behind and The Patriot Act to win bipartisan support and those bills passed. Then they did bankrupcty reform with only a few defectors from the Democratic side. We can make the stimulus our Patriot Act and then pass the birth control and STD bills as our bankruptcy reform. It can be done. We know. They did it.
