With our new Democratic Congress set to take power in January, it worries me somewhat that many believe that only spinelessness could possibly keep them from enacting a progressive agenda. This morning our friend Jerome a Paris bemoaned the fact that Kyoto is not likely to see the light of day while Bush is President and seemed to imply that this was due to a generalized Democratic spinelessness. Many commenters appeared to agree.
With that in mind, I think it is worthwhile to review the process by which laws are enacted.
More.
This is a pretty good description:
Boy: Gee, Bill, you certainly have a lot of patience and courage.
Bill: Well, I got this far. When I started I wasn't even a bill, I was just an idea.
Some folks back home decided they wanted a law passed, so they called
their local Congressman, and said, "You're right, there oughta be a law."
Then he sat down and wrote me out and introduced me to Congress. And I
became a bill, and I'll remain a bill until they decide to make me a law.
I'm just a bill
Yes I'm only a bill,
And I got as far as Capitol Hill.
Well, now I'm stuck in committee
And I'll sit here and wait
While a few key Congressmen discuss
and debate
Whether they should let me be a law.
How I hope and pray that they will,
But today I am still just a bill.
Boy: Listen to those Congressmen arguing! Is all that discussion and debate about you?
Bill: Yeah, I'm one of the lucky ones. Most bills never even get this far. I hope they decide to report on me favorably, otherwise I may die . . . in committee. Ooh, but it looks like I'm gonna live! Now I go to the House of Representatives, and they vote on me.
Boy: If they vote yes, what happens?
Bill: Then I go to the Senate and the whole thing starts all over again.
Boy: Oh no!
Bill: Oh yes!
I'm just a bill
Yes, I'm only a bill
And if they vote for me on Capitol Hill
Well, then I'm off to the White House
Where I'll wait in a line
With a lot of other bills
For the president to sign
And if he signs me, then I'll be a law.
How I hope and pray that he will,
But today I am still just a bill.
Boy: You mean even if the Whole Congress says you should be a law, the president can still say no?
Bill: Yes, that's called a veto. If the president vetoes me, I have to go back to Congress and they vote on me again, and by that time you're so old...
Boy: By that time it's very unlikely that you'll become a law. It's not easy to become a law, is it?
Bill: No!
Now, does this mean a Democratic Congress should not pass legislation just because the President will veto it? Of course not. What it does mean is that the Dem leadership will need to calculate how much politics, how much compromise, how much accomplishment, how much fingerpointing for 2008 each piece can bring and how important is immediate action.
Take this issue:
Remember that effort by President Bush and the Republicans in Congress to partially privatize the Social Security program? . . . Well, it looks like the White House is getting ready for another pass at this bamboozlement. . . .
The Bush administration has sent signals since last month's elections that the president is prepared to accept some tax increases on upper-income families, worrying congressional Republicans and fiscal conservative watchdogs who say he will compromise with Democrats to win a legacy accomplishment.
[...]
Jonathan Singer discusses why he believes the Dems should have nothing to do with this - for reason of policy and politics. And this is the type of analysis the Dem leadership will undertake on most every issue.
And not because they are spineless. But because this is the way of politics. Like it or not.