House GOP Asks What "Six For '06"?
House Democrats left town before the Easter recess trumpeting their accomplishments for the first quarter of the year, so Republicans are welcoming them back by asking: What accomplishments?
Republican leadership staff in the House released a 19-page compendium Friday of quotes, statistics and editorial comments entitled “0 for 6 In ’07,” which (as the title suggests) questions the effectiveness of the Democratic majority through the first three months of this year.
The GOP anchors its claim on the fact that Congress has not yet sent any of its much-ballyhooed “Six for ‘06” bills to the White House for President Bush’s signature because the House and Senate have not yet reconciled compromise measures on any of those legislative items.
“As Democrats have quickly discovered, sound bites from the campaign trail don’t necessarily translate into sound legislation,” leaders wrote in the document. “Rather than take the time to craft responsible, rational legislation, Democrats rush to the floor a series of flawed bills designed solely to quickly deliver on campaign slogans…To date, none have been signed into law, and it is unlikely many will.”
The House quickly passed each of the Democrats’ “Six for ‘06” bills with the help of 62 Republicans, on average – as the majority pointed out in its own sales packet before Congress left town for the two-week recess.
But of those six poll-tested pieces of legislation, the Senate has passed its own version of four – a minimum-wage increase; an overhaul of the country’s intelligence-gathering apparatus based on recommendations by the 9/11 Commission; and, just this week, legislation to allow the government to negotiate drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies; and to roll back restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research.
Democratic leaders in the House and Senate have not yet married their separate versions to send the White House a single bill for Bush’s signature – or veto, as he has promised in the case of the stem-cell bill.
The GOP’s opposition research document is part of a long-term strategy to label Democrats as bad managers in their effort to regain the House.
"If Democrats took this nation in any 'new' direction during their first 100 days, it was backwards,” Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said. “Republicans have demonstrated a commitment to hold Democrats accountable for both their failures and their broken promises, while offering substantive solutions to lead this country forward."
After a little rest, it appears House leaders are once again ready to rumble.
This most recent compilation was assembled by aides to Boehner, Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Conference Chairman Adam Putnam (R-Fla.) and Chief Deputy Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.).