The Democratic-controlled Congress is finally starting to bring the heat to President Bush that had been so highly anticipated following the Democrats' sweep back into the leadership of both houses in November. Finally, after six years of passive acceptance of any and all nation-damaging drivel Bush spewed forth, Congress is beginning to fulfill its role as a check and balance to the Chief Executive. Sweeping into power with the first female Speaker of the House (Nancy Pelosi-CA), the momentum from growing American discontent with President Bush and his overzealous one-track mind focusing solely on Iraq, and avowing a new era of bipartisanship and accountable government, the Democrats are taking the initiative to thwart Bush's attempts at power consolidation and place the executive back in its intended role - to enact and enforce the laws that the LEGISLATURE (not the executive) set forth.
Yet, with his loyal bloc of right-wing Republican legislators, Bush is still managing to throw wrenches into the Congressional machinery. As the Senate worked toward wide-reaching legislation designed to curtail the influence of Capitol lobbyists and tighten congressional ethics rules, Republicans shot down the bill based on their desire to grant line-item veto powers to the President. By attempting to put even more power into the hands of the Executive and allowing him to carve up carefully-drafted legislation line by line, the Republicans illustrate that they are less interested in bipartisanship than in preserving and consolidating party power in the one branch of government where they still ostensibly hold sway. Stemming from the Abramoff scandal - where Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff channeled millions of dollars from Native American gambling clients through non-profit organizations in order to fund campaigns against rival tribal interests - the Republicans in the Senate are attempting to perpetuate a system from which they personally benefit greatly. Further, they are using their efforts toward the line-item veto and spending authority, which would allow the President to submit to Congress a list of spending items the White House wishes to strike from Congressionally-passed spending bills, to delude the public of their real intent behind the bill. Of this deception, Fred Wertheimer, president of the watchdog group Democracy 21, declared, "Whatever they're saying, Republican votes tonight were votes to prevent the Senate from enacting major lobbying and ethics reforms to deal with corruption scandals in Congress. I don't think anyone's getting away with anything here." While Senate Democrats will continue to have a hard time passing this legislation with such united Republican resistance, the GOP will find it harder to assist lobbyists with the Democrats taking an active watchdog role and moral high ground.
Despite the disappointments to date surrounding the Senate's effort to provide greater transparency in the legislative process, there have been Democratic successes to help ease the pain of their struggles. Reacting to Speaker of the House Pelosi's promise to enact six major pieces of legislation long overdue within the first one-hundred hours of the 110th Congress, the House has succeeded in its goal with thirteen hours to spare. The bills now headed to the Senate include an expansion of government-financed embryonic stem-cell research, an increase by over two dollars of the federal minimum wage (over a twenty-six-month period), direct government negotiation with pharmaceutical companies to reduce prescription prices for Medicare beneficiaries, a 3.4 percent decrease over five years of federally-subsidized student-loan interest rates, a revocation of past oil industry tax breaks and new fees on Gulf of Mexico deep-water drilling, and a heightened cargo-inspection program. Furthermore, while the Senate continues to grapple with ethics-, budgeting- and lobbying-reform legislation, the internal House rule changes were passed on 5 January 2007.
Now, emboldened by success, both Democrats and moderate Republicans are stepping out from the ominous pall of the President to openly challenge his recent call for increased troop levels in Iraq. A formal resolution opposing Bush's proposed troop buildup in Iraq has been put forward by a bipartisan group of senators, led by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden (D-DE), Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) and Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE). Gaining support of both Republicans and Democrats, this resolution is a direct challenge to President Bush's recent call for a 21,500-troop increase in Iraq. Drawing on the recommendations of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group and their December report detailing the best route for success in Iraq, the resolution calls for "appropriately expedited" transfer of command from American to the Iraqi military forces, a graduated withdrawal of troops, and strict ultimatums on both the Iraqi government and the American president to work diplomatically or lose funding. With the support of a high-ranking Republican official (Hagel is the second-ranking Republican in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee), this resolution looks to see a Senate vote within the next several weeks. As Hagel intently stated, "I will do everything I can to stop the president's policy, as he outlined it Wednesday night. I think it is dangerously irresponsible."
As more Republicans realize the irresponsibility of the Forty-Third President of the United States, Congress will continue to gain back the strength that has been atrophied by six years of passive acquiescence. The Democrats are setting a solid foundation of bipartisanship and cooperation coupled with an understanding of the popular societal sentiment and clear, challenging goals with which to drive toward a better nation. Though Bush will be sure to throw as many speed bumps in the path of this Congress, it will prevail in reaching the destination of its goals and will provide an effective check to the president's formerly-unquestioned authority.