NYT: Democrats Outline a Platform for the Fall

[Ian’s note: Michael: The environment is not even included!]

WASHINGTON, June 16 — Declaring their party “ready for this election,” Democratic leaders in Congress on Friday announced the platform they hope to use to regain the majority in November.

Their plan, presented at a news conference, included promises to raise the minimum wage, make college tuition tax deductible, eliminate subsidies for oil and gas companies, negotiate lower drug prices for the prescription plan passed last year, increase stem cell research and restore a pay-as-you-go policy for federal budgets.

They noted that Congress had not increased the minimum wage, now at $5.15, since 1997, a fact that Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic leader, declared “immoral.” Their proposal to raise it to $7.25, they said, would benefit seven million workers. They rejected the argument that such a raise would shrink the economy, noting that jobs increased after the last raise.

The Democratic leaders also pledged a 25 percent reduction in oil use by 2020, largely by developing fuel alternatives in the United States. “We want to send our energy money to the Midwest, not the Middle East,” Ms. Pelosi said.

Over and over, the leaders contrasted Republican priorities — which they deemed “the wrong direction” — with their own — “a new direction.” Under Republican rule, they said, health care, college and gas costs have risen faster than incomes.

While Republican leaders vowed Friday to eliminate the estate tax by July 4, Democrats argued that doing so would cost $1 trillion in the first 10 years — more than enough, they said, to pay for every student who graduated from high school this year to go to a public university. A tax cut passed a month ago, they said, would save millionaires $42,000, more than what four minimum-wage earners make in a year.

The Democrats sought to link their Congressional opponents to a president whose approval ratings have languished.

“Americans can’t afford the priorities of this Bush administration any longer,” said Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois. “Democrats are ready for this election. We have the message, we have the candidates, we’re bringing that message to the American people.”

The Democrats’ declaration comes after two weeks that have reversed a run of bad news for Republicans. The Republicans won a special election in the California Congressional district that both sides saw as a bellwether for November; and a special prosecutor investigating the leak of a C.I.A. operative’s name announced he would not indict Karl Rove, the president’s senior adviser, whom Democrats hold up as a symbol of Republican corruption.

And the president’s trip to Iraq and the killing of the Iraqi insurgent leader Abu Masab al-Zarqawi gave Republicans an opportunity to rebut the argument that the war was going badly.

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, insisted that “none of us are running victory laps” for the fall election. “The election is not being held today,” Mr. Reid said, but he added, “If it were, the Senate would be tied.”

Republicans mocked the Democrats’ platform, with a spokesman for Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the majority leader, issuing a one-line statement: “When you’re going in circles like the Democrats, it just seems like you’re going in a new direction.”

 

 

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 17th, 2006 at 8:45 AM and filed under Articles. Follow comments here with the RSS 2.0 feed. Skip to the end and leave a response. Trackbacks are closed.

One Response to “NYT: Democrats Outline a Platform for the Fall”

  1. Michael Butler said:

    Well, as Ian wrote directly, it is a drag that they don’t even include the enviornment.
    Probably afraid of Gore’s film, “An Inconvenient Truth”
    Michael

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