A Democratic Agenda?
THE DEMOCRATS made much of the fact that in this year's budget resolution they moved away from the president's priorities toward their own by shifting several billion dollars into social welfare programs. It wasn't a lot of money, but these are tight budget times, and the Democrats were able to say it was all they had.</br></br>Now, however, Congress has gone from the budget process of enunciating goals to the appropriations process of carrying them out, and guess what? The appropriations committees, also Democratic, are shifting some of the money back. Interest groups are complaining that the subcommittees with jurisdiction over the programs of the departments of labor, education and health and human services have been given too little money to do the job.</br></br>The question is, which is the Democrats' true face or, put another way, to what extent are they willing to impose costs elsewhere in society to achieve their objectives? The issue has now arisen a second time with the promulgation by the leaders of both houses, as Congress broke for Memorial Day, of a Democratic "action plan for economic recovery and growth." As with the budget resolution, it is once again commendable, responsible - and made up entirely of goals.</br></br>The Democrats' theme is that the middle class and poor were left behind in the Reagan-Bush years and that the Bush administration is now glossing over what has turned out to be more than a short and shallow recession. "We can wait and hope that things will improve, that's the president's course, or we can act. That's our course. Democrats don't think that we can afford just to hope our way into the 21st century," Senate majority leader George Mitchell said yesterday.</br></br>Act how? The Democrats said they were committed to tax relief for the middle class, a strengthening of unemployment compensation, a highway bill to provide both jobs and a modern infrastructure, broader access to health care, increased aid to both higher and elementary and secondary education, a strengthening of the safety net, including the federal feeding programs for the poor, and "an aggressive energy policy."