Democratic Broken Promises and where we need to go

By Brent

Here are just a few of the broken promises we heard from the Democratic Leadership after they gained the majority in 2006 of both Houses of Congress:

If elected to the majority in Congress, Democrats would implement all of the recommendations of the bipartisan commission that examined the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Nope. Did not happen. The Leadership did not want to change the way congress was organized for better funding and oversight of intelligence agencies.

Here's a great line from Speaker Pelosi:

“Democrats have a plan to lower gas prices…join Democrats who are working to lower gas prices now.”

How's that working out?

Oh yeah, that great lobbying reform promise. You know, the one that would cause lobbyists to lose all power over politicians.

I'm still waiting for that to even be discussed.

Draining the swamp of corruption from congress.

That is just a pipe dream.

We are going to work in a bi-partisan effort to pass the American people's agenda.

As for the Bi-partisan part, you have to have Republicans also cooperate, and since they believe it isn't in their best interest to do so, I will give the Leadership a pass on this. However, the American people's agenda hasn't been even dented over the past year and a half. Withdrawl from Iraq. Investigation of the Bushies to see if laws were broken. Runaway food and fuel prices. Taxes. Healthcare costs. Education. Retirement Benefits. And many other things. Look where we have gotten with all of these things. Basically nowhere.

All that I'm saying is that the Democratic Party of today isn't what it should be. We are the party of reformers and the party that has to come in and clean up the messes that the GOP leaves behind. So it pains me to see that we are turning into the GOP in so many ways. You have Hillary using Karl Rove's playbook in the Democratic nomination race against Barack Obama. You have congressional Democrats using pork-barrel spending to justify why they should have more time in congress. The national party is divided on winning power. When that shouldn't be the goal.

We are better than that. We should be striving to solve the energy crunch we are in. Why not spend $100 Million on research for improving alternative energy like solar and wind? Hell, if you want a bi-partisan approach, for every dollar that you spend on that research, allow a tax break for the same amount to the existing energy companies. It's not like they need it, but to satisfy those GOP congressmen, do it. Why not cut some funding for bloated government programs. There is much waste and abuse in the Medicare and Medicaid system. Tighten the standards for those programs, and cut the same amount from the Defense budget. After all if the Air Force alone gets $223 Million worth of parts and equipment that is already obsolete by the time they receive physical possession of the items, then we can afford to cut some spending there. These are just two small things on how to start controlling spending and also helping our economy at the same time.

Us Democrats need to be pioneers in almost every aspect of invention and research. Conservatives by their very nature are content to do things the same as they were before. We are the thinkers, and usually outside the box. We can't have government involved in everything, but government can be an ally in certain things by using tax incentives and reducing spending. We know that the Republicans can't do that. Just look at the GOP since 1980. Reagan began the Republican revolution by saying that we will spend, spend, spend. Let our children and grandchildren worry about our excesses. The GOP has taken that to heart. Look at what happened to spending when the GOP had both the congress and Presidency. We need to be the reformers. We need to get America back to following the constitution. We need to be the ones that are the parent that says no to excessive spending. We need to be the party that shows everybody that freedom is indeed worth fighting for, from the lowest person on the economic and social totem pole to the ones that have achieved greatness. That is what the Democratic Party needs to be. Not what we are right now and appear to be heading the GOP direction. We are better than that and America is depending on us to prove that point.