Dems Attack GOP 'Pledge.' So What's Their Agenda?

In God We Trust

By Byron York
WashingtonExaminer.com

During the months House Republicans spent researching and preparing their "Pledge to America," GOP strategists knew that, once the document was released, Democrats would attack it as a plan to return the United States to the policies of George W. Bush. Republicans could have endorsed Obamacare, embraced the stimulus, and praised $1.5 trillion deficits and Democrats still would have condemned the Pledge as a return to Bush.

Sure enough, on Wednesday evening, as copies of the Republican agenda leaked to the media, the Democratic National Committee released an ad entitled "GOP: Same Old Agenda." "Instead of charting a new course to move this country forward, House Republicans proved once and for all that there's not an inch of daylight between them and the reckless Bush administration policies that cost 8 million American jobs and sent our economy into a tailspin," wrote DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse. From the White House, Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer wrote that, "Instead of charting a new course, Congressional Republicans doubled down on the same ideas that hurt America’s middle class." Other Democrats -- all the party leadership -- are saying essentially the same thing.

It's certainly legitimate to discuss and criticize the Republican agenda. But that leaves a question: What is the Democratic agenda? What are Democrats promising to do if the voters decide to return them to control of the House?

The answer is: There isn't a Democratic agenda.

Shortly before the Republicans rolled out their plan in Sterling, Virginia, I called the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. I asked spokesman Ryan Rudominer whether, since we now have the GOP agenda, there is a similar document laying out what Democrats will do if voters return them to power in the House. There was a moment of silence on the other end of the call.

"I'm sorry, you mean, like, a current one?" Rudominer asked.

Yes, I said.

"I don't think we have, like, you know, a 21-page sort of infommercial-type package like this," Rudominer said.

Well, any sort of agenda would be fine, I said.

"Look, you know, each race is going to have their own individualized message," Rudominer answered. "So look, we're not putting together a gimmicky package like this six weeks before the election. We're talking about making each of these elections a choice."

Rudominer didn't handle my question very well, which suggests that the DCCC hasn't gotten a lot of inquiries about the specifics of the Democratic agenda. If officials at the office charged with electing Democrats to the House felt pressured to produce an agenda of their own, then they would have had talking points to explain it.

In the absence of a specific Democratic agenda, perhaps the best way to guess at what Democrats would do if re-elected is to look at the unfinished portions of their 2009-2010 agenda. There is cap-and-trade environmental regulation. More economic stimulus. Comprehensive immigration reform. Union-favored "card check" legislation. And, of course, resisting Republican efforts to repeal or chip away at Obamacare. (Democrats recently beat back a proposed change to the health care law that would fix a tax reporting requirement that just about everyone agrees is terribly burdensome on businesses, which suggests they will try to stop any changes to the health care law, despite pledges to "fix" the legislation.)

The problem with that agenda, of course, is that it is pretty much roundly opposed by the voters. That could be the reason so many Democrats would rather give you their opinion of the GOP's Pledge to America.