"What do you expect the opposing party to do? Rollover?"
The same thing it's been doing since we've had opposition parties, the same thing Tip O'Neill did with Raygun, and the same thing Pelosi did for Bush; put America ahead of party.
Compare this record with the Democratic Congress of 2007-09. With the economy weakening and two wars underway, there were significant policy differences between Democrats and the Bush White House. But from Day One, Democrats focused on moving our nation forward. Rather than set up roadblocks, we worked across the aisle with President Bush and many Republican colleagues.
Though we never compromised principles, we did seek common ground to achieve results. From the start, we acted to strengthen workers by increasing the minimum wage for the first time in more than a decade. We worked with President Bush to jump-start our economy with recovery rebates for 130 million American families, even though Democrats preferred including investments to create jobs rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges.
To promote the industries of the future and safeguard national security, we enacted the comprehensive Energy Independence and Security Act, raising fuel-efficiency standards for the first time in 32 years, investing in renewables and biofuels while creating clean energy jobs. We followed up with the COMPETES Act to support high-tech jobs, extend math and science education and boost research.
In addition to its own editorials, USA TODAY publishes a variety of opinions from outside writers. On political and policy matters, we publish opinions from across the political spectrum.
Roughly half of our columns come from our Board of Contributors, a group whose interests range from education to religion to sports to the economy. Their charge is to chronicle American culture by telling the stories, large and small, that collectively make us what we are.
We also publish weekly columns by Al Neuharth, USA TODAY's founder, and DeWayne Wickham, who writes primarily on matters of race but on other subjects as well. That leaves plenty of room for other views from across the nation by well-known and lesser-known names alike.
To honor the sacrifice of those in uniform, Congress passed a new GI Bill, providing education to veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. We passed the Mental Health Parity Act, ending health insurance discrimination against the mentaly ill. And Democrats led the way to rebuild trust with voters by passing landmark lobbying and ethics reform.
When the Treasury secretary warned of an imminent collapse of our financial system, we worked together on a bill that protected taxpayers, required loans to be repaid with interest, and prevented the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs.
The Democratic House passed more than 230 key measures, with over 70% receiving bipartisan backing. By the end of 2008, in all, President Bush signed 460 laws passed by the Democratic Congress. Thus far, we can only say the same about 169 laws in the current Republican House.
usatoday30.usatoday.com |
