Setting the Agenda

Some thoughts by Robert Reich on what the newly Democratic congress should focus on (hint - not impeachment) via The American Prospect:

Instead of dwelling on what’s gone wrong, Democrats should focus on what to do right. For example:

• Cut the Alternative Minimum Tax so it doesn’t slam the middle class, and roll back the Bush tax cuts for the rich.
• Open Medicare to every American who needs affordable health insurance, and use Medicare’s resulting huge bargaining clout to reduce drug prices.
• Bar companies from deducting from their corporate income taxes any executive pay in excess of $1 million a year.
• Raise the minimum wage and index it to inflation.
• Reform Social Security by eliminating the ceiling on payments so people earning over $100,000 a year pay the same percent of their income as everyone else.
• Raise fuel economy standards, eliminate subsidies to the oil companies, and use the money instead for basic R&D in non-carbon based energy.
• Renegotiate the Kyoto protocols on greenhouse gas emissions.
• And while we’re at it, reaffirm the Geneva Conventions.

I could go on, but you get the point.

Democrats should use their new-found clout to offer ideas for tackling America’s hard problems. Even if these bills get vetoed by the President, at least they set out an agenda for where the nation ought to be heading.