The Democratic agenda is ‘Whose side are you on?’, shaming Republicans into action

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House Democrats: It’s not about politics
By John Bresnahan, February 12, 2014

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and her Democratic colleagues are pushing an election-year wish list that includes a minimum-wage increase, immigration reform and extending federal unemployment benefits.

But don’t ask them if their agenda is all about politics or winning back the majority they lost four years ago.

When asked about the outlook for the midterm elections on Wednesday, Pelosi dismissed the question as irrelevant right now.

“That’s not what we’re here to do,” Pelosi insisted. “We’re here to talk about policy… If Republicans were to support an increase in the minimum wage, we’d be thrilled. We’d rather have that legislative success than an issue in the campaign.”

As they begin their annual legislative retreat in Cambridge, Md. — with scheduled appearances by President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden — House Democrats presented a unified, somewhat happy minority, which in itself is a contradiction in terms.

Pelosi and House Democrats were largely responsible for Tuesday’s House passage of a “clean” debt ceiling increase for another year, followed by a close Senate vote on Wednesday. Congress’ approval of a debt measure without any additional language was a win for Obama, and it builds on the Democrats’ political scorecard from last year’s government shutdown.

Democrats were also pleased by Obama’s executive order raising the minimum wage for several hundred thousand federal workers, which plays into their drive to raise the wage nationally to $10.10 per hour. House Republicans are opposed to such a move.

And Pelosi and her top lieutenants — many of whom played big roles in the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act — were very happy to hear that more 1 million Americans had signed up for state and federal health exchanges during January, bringing the total Obamacare sign-ups to 3.3 million.

So while most House Republicans believe that their legislative work is essentially done for the year, Democrats signaled they want to enact lots more legislation. They can’t force Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and the GOP Conference to take up any of their measures, but Democrats believe they can score big political points by pushing the majority to act.

“We’re very excited about a year of action, working with the president, hopefully working in a bipartisan way,” Pelosi told reporters late Wednesday.

“This is about whose side are you on?” said Democratic Congressional Committee Chairman Steve Israel (N.Y.). “We’re on the side of the American people. We’re going to continue to focus on this dominant theme — ‘Whose side are you on?’ — at this conference, over the next nine months, as we have focused on this in the past.”

Israel noted that Rep. Gary Miller of California, one of the more vulnerable Republican incumbents heading into November, announced on Wednesday that he would retire at the end of the 113th Congress, putting a winnable seat in play.

Democrats need to pick up 17 seats to put Pelosi back into the speaker’s chair. At this point, most election analysts suggest that’s not going to happen. Democrats stand a good chance of winning a Florida special election next month, but the outlook for November is poor. Obama’s soft poll numbers, the continued unpopularity of Obamacare and the traditional “six-year itch” for an incumbent president, don’t bode well for Democrats on Election Day.

However, Democrats are putting on a happy face at this retreat, insisting they will keep working on their agenda — shaming Republicans into action — and everything will work out for them.
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