I’m a little surprised that I find myself having to concede this, but I’d like to offer the Democrats a hearty congratulations on completing the 100 Hour Plan yesterday evening, and successfully blowing my expectations out of the water. If they manage to maintain the pace, this could prove to be a very interesting two years. As the measures still await a trip through the Senate and the signature or (as the case may well be) veto of President Bush, I’m still willing to bet that about half of the changes will never see the light of day.
As many of you know, the 100 Hour Plan consisted of a number of laws and policy changes that the new Democratic House of Representatives wanted to pass in the early days of their reign. These ranged from repeal of tax cuts to an increase in the minimum wage and just about everything in between. According to Wikipedia, the points were:
- “Break the link between lobbyists and legislation” with new House rules
- Enact all recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission
- Raise the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour.
- Grant federal funding to a wide variety of stem cell research projects
- Cut interest rates on student loans in half
- Allow the government to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies, securing lower drug prices for Medicare patients.
- Institute a “pay-as-you-go” policy to reduce the deficit
- End the Bush tax cuts for the Americans “at a certain level” (those making $250,000.00 a year or more)
- End large tax subsidies for large oil companies
I’m not sure that there’s really much more to say on this, but it almost goes without saying that I will be keeping a close eye on what happens in the Senate and when the bills finally get to the President.
I also have a bit of a mistake to admit - I had misunderstood what exactly was meant when they announced the ‘100 Hour Plan’ - I wrongfully assumed that it referred to the first 100 hours of the new Congress, not just the first 100 working hours. Not that it really matters, not that this is any defense of my predictions, I simply want to make my mistake clear and be honest with my readers.
January 20th, 2007 at 4:10 am
Sort of snicker at the “break the link between lobbyists and legislation” thing after Pelosi’s (resolved) American-Samoa incident.
Besides, “banning meals” is NOT going to stop PACs from gaining legislative access…
January 20th, 2007 at 10:32 am
I never said that everything they managed to do was good or perfect, but simple that they managed to accomplish their (perhaps mostly symbolic) goals.
And the American Samoa incident (assuming you are referring to the minimum wage bill) does not really seem like that big of a deal to me.
At least banning meals is a start, hopefully, to ending all that incessant pork that plagues ever so many bills.