I'm working on a blog entry & letter to the editor responding to Democrats being called the "Party of No" and I've hit a writers block. How about a list of programs the Democrats have proposed and had shot down by Republicans in the past five years? Can anybody give me a hand?

check out this blog entry on Talk Left for one example:
http://talkleft.com/new_archives/002908.html

Thanks, the article it linked to gave me a couple ideas, but I'm still blocked. Time to go back to editing the big paper. I'll keep checking back here.

It's not much, but this is what I have so far.

Try this Noonan:

http://www.democrats.org/agenda.html

There are links to things there.

Also, some of the leading Dems websites have proposals on them.

Too many references to repubs in your paper now

A ha! Now, where have you been all day? Trying to crank out a 12 page research paper with proper citations didn't give me much time to think about this much.

http://reid.senate.gov/


http://www.johnkerry.com/features/count/
"Count Every Vote Act of 2005

On February 17th Senators John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Barbara Boxer and Frank Lautenberg introduced S 450 the “Count Every Vote Act of 2005” to fully fund the Help America Vote Act, fund the activities of the Election Assistance Commission, and help states invest in better voting machines with paper trails.

The Count Every Vote Act of 2005 seeks to address concerns about the security of voting machines and the inability of the majority of voters who may use these machines to be able to adequately verify their vote and ensure that the vote they intended was both cast and counted. The act also addresses many other problems in our Federal election system – including long wait times in which to vote, the erroneous purging of voters, voter suppression and intimidation, and unequal access to the voting process – remain. The bill establishes, among other initiatives, a voter-verified paper trail for use by all individuals, including language minority voters, illiterate voters and voters with disabilities; and mandates national standards in a variety of areas, including the registration of voters and the counting of provisional ballots.

All provisions of this legislation are to be in effect no later than the November 2006 Federal election. The Count Every Vote Act requires that all provisions be in place for the next major election cycle in 2006.

Representatives from civil rights organizations and voting rights advocates have praised the legislation, including People For the American Way, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law, NAACP, Common Cause, the National Voting Rights Institute, DEMOS and the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium.

The full text of the bill is available here."



"On the first day of the 109th Congress, Kerry introduced legislation in the Senate, the “Kids First Act” - S. 114, to provide health care coverage to the 11 million American children who currently go without. Kerry’s legislation also helps Governors and states save on health care costs by reducing the burden on state's Medicaid rolls.
More than 500,000 people have signed on as “citizen cosponsors” in support of KidsFirst at johnkerry.com and nearly 20,000 people across the country have called into Kerry’s “Give Voices to Our Values” phone hotline to record their powerful, personal stories.

Kerry has also put together an impressive coalition of non-profit organizations representing more than 20 million Americans who support the bill including: ..."

I wish I had the time to help you a bunch ! I was working today
And tomorrow..... and probably most of the next couple of weeks.

I went to some Dem's website that was chock full of goodies- but (senior brain), I'll be darned if I can remember who's it was- sorry.

Try Dean & the DLC, too.

Methinks you just gotta prioritize and organize a bit better. Might be you'll wanna forgoe unnecessary incidentals like eating, sleeping and bathroom breaks (send someone out for the Depends!), eh?

'Twould be nice to see Democrats as bein' seen as proactive rather than reactive once again................................

http://www.ipma-hr.org/index.cfm?navid=134

Democratic Senators have made repeal of the revised overtime regulations a priority in the 109th Congress. S. 14 includes a provision repealing any part of the revised regulation that would operate to deny overtime pay to any employee entitled to receive it under the old regulations. Even if enacted, language would be extremely difficult to apply in reality. And, in a Republican controlled Congress and White House, ultimate passage is unlikely.

S. 14 also includes a provision raising the minimum salary levels contained in the overtime regulations. Currently, anyone earning less than $23,660 per year is entitled to overtime. Under the Democratic proposal, that figure would rise to $30,732 per year.
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Health Care Reform – Is a priority for both Republicans and Democrats. Republican proposals to increase access to health care, expand the use of Health Savings Accounts and control rising costs are contained in S. 4. The Democrats are proposing to lower the cost of prescription drugs by allowing importation from Canada and overseas. Senate Democratic proposals are contained in S. 16.
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Pension Reform – On April 28, Representative Ben Cardin (D-MD) introduced H.R. 1961, the “Pension Preservation and Savings Expansion Act of 2005.” The measure would further enhance pension portability, make permanent all of the pension/retirement provisions in the 2001 legislation, strengthen the retirement savings of state and local government employees and improve purchase of service credits. Senators Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Max Baucus (D-MT) have reintroduced the “National Employee Savings and Trust Equity Guarantee” (NESTEG) Act which would increase the maximum deductible contribution to a defined benefit plan from 100% of current liability to 130%. It would also clarify the purchase of service credits and may be expanded to include savings incentives.
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Equal Pay Measures -Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and Representative Rosa L. DeLauro (D-CT) introduced the Paycheck Fairness Act (HR 1687, S. 841). The bill would strengthen the Equal Pay Act by permitting compensatory and punitive damages, strengthen educational programs and make it easier to file class action lawsuits. The Fair Pay Act (H.R. 1697, S. 840) was introduced by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) and would go beyond the Equal Pay Act by requiring equal pay for jobs that are of comparable skill, effort, responsibility and working conditions. Certain professions such as teaching and nursing continue to be dominated by women and are “traditionally undervalued,” Harkin said. While eradicating pay discrimination is a worthy goal, the bills pose problems for employers. Particularly the Fair Pay Act has the potential to subject employers to lawsuits because of the ambiguity involved in determining which jobs are comparable in skill, effort and responsibility.

http://democrats.senate.gov/index3.html

When the ruling party, like the Titanic, is going full speed ahead into an iceberg laden sea, someone's gotta step on the bridge and say NO!

Friends don't let friends drive drunk.

Friends of the country don't let the GOP drunken with power drive US over a cliff...

Big Blue Box blog has an essay that might help. Seeing: True Colors.

I'd kinda like to see some REAL election reform from EITHER party (though at least Democrats have made some proposals, while Republicans do nothing.) If they want folks to take their so called "mandate" seriously it would seem essential. It's really simple: make your precious "evoting" machines that make things so much "simpler" and "safer" printout a ballot with all the candidates a voter selects, and place THAT in a ballot box. It's not that hard to "divine the intent of the voter" when the ballot clearly says "John Kerry" or "Al Gore" or whatever. You certainly aren't in the position of the woman in FL last November who has to wonder if, of the eight times she had to make her choice before the machine stopped saying "George Bush," the last or all of them were counted (would explain a lot, huh?) Best of all, machines that printout ballots with the candidates who have been chosen neatly, clearly and (this is the most important part) unequivocally printed on them exist and are in use in other countries; no expensive R&D, no nasty bugs (like having to vote eight times before the machine stops showing the other candidate.) What do you think the Republicans would say to that...?

Thanks for the ideas and comments so far. Here's what I have for now. Feel free to comment, I have a fairly thick skin when it comes to my writing.

The feeling some may get reading about all those questions is that you are attacking Republicans with unrelated issues instead of defending Democrats.

I would try to make it clear the issues ARE relevant:

Party of No or Party of I told you so ?

Who said NO to a Clinton recommendation to build a Homeland Security department only to install one after 3,100 people got killed ?

Who said NO to fighting terrorism, cutting it's funding before 9/11 ? Who is still shortchanging ship container screening and border security even after 9/11 ? Have you read the Democratic proposal to increase homeland security funding to areas that need it most?

Who said NO to requests for info on the next Supreme Court Justice ? He is going to be our most important lawyer, as clients aren't we allowed to get references for our lawyers ? Would the Republicans release all the information regarding Judge Roberts, as requested by the Senate?

You get the idea ? Start with the WH saying NO and then tie it to what the dems are doing good.

Add this great one too:

Who said NO, terrorism fighting can't be achieved without War, only to change the focus (and name) of their Global War on Terror to diplomacy, law enforcement and education after 2 years of miserable failure in Iraq ?