Contract with America 2 a la Democrats

Based on David Shribman’s "Contract with America of their Own," Pittsburgh Post Gazette, 6/25/06

The Dems are taking a page out of the Gingrich book on Contract with America 1 by proposing Contract with America 2. The main tenants are:

Enact 9/11 Commission recommendations
Raise minimum wage scooped by GOP
Reform healthcare with prescription drug focus
Cut school loan interest rates in half
tax breaks for alternative energy and roll backs for oil companies
pay as you go Congress
No new deficit spending

But, there is a difference. Contract 1 focused on both changing the structure, (i.e. cutting the number of committees and requiring a 3/5 majority to raise taxes), and the way the government does business, (i.e. setting goals like crime reduction and job creation and meeting them). Contract 2 is focused on changing the way government does business, bringing to an end (as Rep. Pelosi put it) “Congress as an auction house where legislation goes to the highest bidder.” To make this resonate with the operative majority (defined as majority plus the margin of stolen or trashed by GOP votes) the Dems must show their resolve to enact the main tenants of Contract 2 by closing ranks and getting in the face of the GOP. The Dems must pound on the frustrating experience of U.S. troops in Iraq that has (for those few paying attention) undermined the moral authority of the Bush Administration initially gained by tackling the war on terror. To take back the House of Representatives, the Dems must connect the rising economic uncertainty with the fate of the pension funds of the effective majority. The Dems must use the Abramoff and other scandals as well as the Bush Chaney hollow claim that the war on terror requires their usurpation of the Constitution as a mirror of this government's subjugation of the interests of the people for their own greed and lust for power. Contract 2 is about the way the U.S. is being governed, not the structure of government.