Cross-posted at WinningProgressive
With election day rapidly approaching, now is the perfect time to summarize exactly what is at stake on November 2.
When President Obama and the Democratic Congress took office in January 2009 after eight years of President Bush, our economy was in a free fall. 1.8 million jobs had been lost in the three months prior to President Obama’s inauguration, and a total of 3.5 million jobs had been lost in 2008. Our financial system had melted down, and President Bush had provided Wall Street with a $700 billion bailout with virtually no oversight. Median household income and net worth had declined, while the poverty rate and the number of uninsured had increased significantly.
President Obama and the Democratic Congress immediately began working to address these critical issues. Democrats passed a stimulus bill that stabilized our economy and stemmed the astronomical job losses that occurred under the closing year of the Bush Administration. As a result, in 2010, private sector jobs have increased every month. Democrats enacted a Wall Street reform bill to regulate derivatives and avoid future bank bailouts, and reformed Bush’s Wall Street bailout in ways that have ensured that the banks have paid almost the entire amount back to the taxpayers. Democrats tackled health insurance issues, by enacting reforms that will end abusive industry practices like pre-existing conditions denials, expand health insurance coverage to 32 million more Americans, close the Medicare donut hole, and begin to curb the rising cost of health care. The Democrats also reformed student loans by shifting $65 billion away from subsidies for banks and toward increasing Pell Grants and other student aid, extended unemployment benefits and COBRA health insurance coverage to soften the blow of the Bush Recession, provided aid to small businesses, passed significant credit card industry reforms, created a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to help ensure that Americans are no longer ripped off by the shady practices of payday lenders, credit card companies, and other financial institutions, and had a banner year on legislation to benefit veterans. And Democrats did all of this in the face of virtually universal obstructionism from Republicans in Congress.
Much more, of course, remains to be done. Creating jobs and lowering the unemployment rate is critical. We need to pass comprehensive immigration reform that creates a path to earned citizenship. We need to repeal DADT. We need to address climate change and seize the economic opportunity provided by developing a clean energy economy. We need to continue rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure. We need to find sensible ways to address long term deficits, reduce the influence of corporate interests on our political system, and narrow the growing economic inequality in our system.
The question for November 2 is who do you trust more to address these major policy issues facing our nation? On one side, we have Democrats who have worked hard to address the major issues of the day. You might not always fully agree with the results or find them to be ideal, but at least with the Democrats we have been debating and focusing on how to make progress on issues that directly impact the lives of virtually every American.
On the other side are Republicans who have made clear that they care more about obstructionism, investigations, and repealing what progress has been made than about addressing policy issues in any serious manner. For the past two years, Republicans have been the party of no, using the filibuster and other obstructive practices at an historically unprecedented rate. Both wannabe House Speaker John Boehner and Mike Pence, Chairman of the House Republican Conference, have promised to continue this obstructionism by announcing that they will not compromise with Democrats over the next two years. Meanwhile, wannabe Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has stated that the Republicans’ number one priority is to make sure that President Obama is a one-term President, rather than, say, helping the economy or creating jobs. Meanwhile, if they were to gain a majority in the House, Republicans are promising a re-run of the investigations that they launched against President Clinton, when, for example, they took 140 hours of Congressional testimony on the Clintons’ use of the White House Christmas card list.
On policy, Republicans have offered little outside of tax cuts for the wealthy elite and threatening to repeal Wall Street reform and to shut down the government if they are unable to directly repeal health insurance reform. Republicans make loud claims about wanting to cut the budget deficit, which was higher under the last year of President Bush than it is this year, but they refuse to offer any details about how they would do it. The “Pledge” that the Republicans issued as their main policy document was widely dismissed as lacking details on numerous important issues, such as how to fix the economy or address Social Security and Medicare. Some of their leading candidates, such as Sharron Angle in Nevada or Ron Johnson in Wisconsin, either claim that it would not be their job as a Senator to try to increase jobs, or are unwilling to offer even basic details about their policy positions until after the election. And when the Republican candidates do talk policy, it is usually to try to disavow past statements that they want to privatize Social Security, Medicare, and the Veterans’ Administration, eliminate the minimum wage, and prohibit choice even in the cases of rape and incest.
So, the choice is clear. At a time when our nation is faced with serious issues, Republicans are promising obstructionism, investigations, and little in the way of solutions. By contrast, the Democrats, despite some disappointments, have a record of stopping our economic free fall and of enacting significant reforms in areas that directly benefit the lives of virtually every American, and will at least provide the opportunity for us to continue to work to improve our economy and to address the other major issues facing our nation.
If you want to help keep Congress Democratic, now is the time to act by:
1. Forwarding this blog post to any undecided voters or Democrats who are thinking about not voting that you know.
4. Signing up to protect the vote from Republican voter suppression efforts on Election Day.
5. Getting offline once you have done the above. Turn off your TV. Even close your books, newspapers and magazines, and help Get Out The Vote!