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Dems Attack GOP 'Pledge.' So What's Their Agenda?
By Byron York
WashingtonExaminer.com
During the months House Republicans spent researching and preparing
their "Pledge to America," GOP strategists knew that, once the document was
released, Democrats would attack it as a plan to return the United States to the
policies of George W. Bush. Republicans could have endorsed Obamacare, embraced
the stimulus, and praised $1.5 trillion deficits and Democrats still would have
condemned the Pledge as a return to Bush.
Sure enough, on Wednesday evening, as copies of the Republican
agenda leaked to the media, the Democratic National Committee released an ad
entitled "GOP: Same Old Agenda." "Instead of charting a new course to move this
country forward, House Republicans proved once and for all that there's not an
inch of daylight between them and the reckless Bush administration policies that
cost 8 million American jobs and sent our economy into a tailspin," wrote DNC
spokesman Brad Woodhouse. From the White House, Communications Director Dan
Pfeiffer wrote that, "Instead of charting a new course, Congressional
Republicans doubled down on the same ideas that hurt America’s middle class."
Other Democrats -- all the party leadership -- are saying essentially the same
thing.
It's certainly legitimate to discuss and criticize the Republican
agenda. But that leaves a question: What is the Democratic agenda? What are
Democrats promising to do if the voters decide to return them to control of the
House?
The answer is: There isn't a Democratic agenda.
Shortly before the Republicans rolled out their plan in Sterling,
Virginia, I called the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. I asked
spokesman Ryan Rudominer whether, since we now have the GOP agenda, there is a
similar document laying out what Democrats will do if voters return them to
power in the House. There was a moment of silence on the other end of the call.
"I'm sorry, you mean, like, a current one?" Rudominer asked.
Yes, I said.
"I don't think we have, like, you know, a 21-page sort of
infommercial-type package like this," Rudominer said.
Well, any sort of agenda would be fine, I said.
"Look, you know, each race is going to have their own
individualized message," Rudominer answered. "So look, we're not putting
together a gimmicky package like this six weeks before the election. We're
talking about making each of these elections a choice."
Rudominer didn't handle my question very well, which suggests that
the DCCC hasn't gotten a lot of inquiries about the specifics of the Democratic
agenda. If officials at the office charged with electing Democrats to the House
felt pressured to produce an agenda of their own, then they would have had
talking points to explain it.
In the absence of a specific Democratic agenda, perhaps the best
way to guess at what Democrats would do if re-elected is to look at the
unfinished portions of their 2009-2010 agenda. There is cap-and-trade
environmental regulation. More economic stimulus. Comprehensive immigration
reform. Union-favored "card check" legislation. And, of course, resisting
Republican efforts to repeal or chip away at Obamacare. (Democrats recently beat
back a proposed change to the health care law that would fix a tax reporting
requirement that just about everyone agrees is terribly burdensome on
businesses, which suggests they will try to stop any changes to the health care
law, despite pledges to "fix" the legislation.)
The problem with that agenda, of course, is that it is pretty much roundly
opposed by the voters. That could be the reason so many Democrats would rather
give you their opinion of the GOP's Pledge to America.