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The liberals’ 100-hour agenda

January 4, 2007 | By Nathaniel Ward

 This week and next, the new liberal leadership of the Congress hopes to enact a series of reforms. Dani Doane, director of U.S. House relations at The Heritage Foundation, compiled a list of the leadership’s proposals, which would be enacted during the first 100 hours Congress is in session:

  • “Break the link between lobbyists and legislation” and enact pay-as-you-go budgeting (PAYGO);
  • Implement the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission;
  • Raise the minimum wage;
  • Allow the government to “negotiate” prices in the Medicare Part D drug benefit and use any savings to fill the benefit’s “doughnut hole” gap in coverage;
  • Halve the interest rate on student loans;
  • Raise taxes on oil companies to “achieve…independence;” and
  • Preemptively resolve to oppose personal accounts in Social Security

While this list may make for good politics, many of the proposals are far from good policy. Doane reminds members of Congress that “during the first 100 hours of the 110th Congress, Members should strive to accomplish more than just check-the-box exercises and actually provide some useful, productive legislation.”

Click here for a list of real solutions and rebuttals to the liberals’ proposals.

The Heritage Foundation will work closely with members of both parties to ensure that Congress enacts sound proposals that make for good policy and not just good soundbites.

What do you think? Should Congress raise the minimum wage? Click here to take our poll.

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Tackling other issues

While many Heritage experts have been busy preparing for today’s opening gavel of the 110th Congress, others have been busy the past few weeks working on a number of other issues:

  • Next Monday marks the fifth anniversary of the No Child Left Behind Act, which built on four decades of ineffective and increasingly-centralized federal controls on education. To mark the occasion, Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Jim DeMint (R-SC) will speak at Heritage about an alternative education strategy which would restore federalism, expand transparency and increase accountability to parents and taxpayers.
  • Writing in The Chicago Sun-Times, Heritage President Ed Feulner argues that America risks a return to the failed policies of the 1970s if turns to government controls to fight global warming.
  • “The pernicious myth that the armed forces are filled with stupid soldiers has got to stop,” Tim Kane writes on FoxNews.com. He points out that those in uniform are generally better-educated than the public at large, and warns against a return to policies of conscription that would reduce the high quality of the volunteer force and harm individual liberty.
  • Ron Utt explains the pernicious and counterproductive effects of government-imposed limits on development, which increase urban sprawl, worsen traffic and leave lower-income workers worse off.
  • Heritage’s FamilyFacts.org released a new featured finding highlighting the importance of religion, family and traditional values: “A 2004 study found that, in addition to family structure and parental religiosity, teens’ satisfaction with their families correlated with their religious practice and faith.”

In other news

  • Writing in The Wall Street Journal yesterday, President Bush quite rightly proposed “balancing the budget through pro-growth economic policies and spending restraint.” He also said he will soon announce a change of strategy in Iraq, which reports indicate will include a “surge” of troops to secure the country.
  • In another demonstration of the failure of government-run health care, Britain’s National Health Service is canceling surgeries and other operations because it has run out of money.
  • The Massachusetts legislature on Tuesday voted the first of two necessary approvals of an amendment to protect traditional marriage in the state. If lawmakers approve it again in the next session, it will be put before voters in 2008.
  • American shipping isn’t as dominant as it once was, The New York Times reports. The reason? Protectionism.
  • In a victory in the war on terrorism, radical Islamists have been largely driven from power in Somalia by Ethiopian and Somali government troops. Roughly 600 terrorist fighters remain holed up in the south of the country.

Coming up at Heritage

To attend these or any other Heritage Foundation events, RSVP at Heritage’s events website. Or you can watch these events live online at Heritage.org. All times are Eastern.

Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.