Everything You Know Is Wrong

I'm not taking a bit of credit for this since it's coming almost verbatim from Manyoso's diary on Daily Kos. Everything following is from the diary:

Senator Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats have just released their opposition agenda and you have the opportunity to become a citizen co-sponsor.

The agenda looks very good as it includes specific Senate Bills that the Democrats will introduce to the full Senate. The Bills cover a comprehensive set of issues including major reforms in our approaches to the military, trade, medicare, education, health care, and election reform. Other targeted issues include terrorism, veterans issues, deficit reduction, and abortion prevention.

These Bills will be reconciled with the House Democrats and will hopefully spur action on a Democratic parallel to the Republican's infamous Contract with America. I've created a quick bulleted summary of the Bills below. I really hope whoever is responsible for the webpage description of these Bills will take a look at it. Whoever drew up the descriptions was waayyyy to verbose. These need to be presented as no-nonsense, serious policy proposals. I'd like to see them present it as a resume to the American people of what we intend to do.

Senate Bill 11: Standing With Our Troops.

• Increase our military end strength by up to 40,000 by 2007.
  
• Create a Guard and Reserve Bill of Rights.
  
• Fight for the families of soldiers by providing income security and affordable health care.
  
• Read more here.
  

Senate Bill 12: Targeting the Terrorists More Effectively.

• Increase our Special Operations forces by 2,000.
  
• Target the institutions that spawn new terrorists.
  
• Expand the pace and scope of programs to eliminate and safeguard nuclear materials.
  
• Read more here.
  

Senate Bill 13: Fulfilling Our Duty to America’s Veterans.

• Expand the availability and accessibility of mental health care.
  
• Ensure that no veteran is forced to choose between a retirement and disability check.
  
• Commitment to the soldiers of today a 21st Century GI Bill.
  
  
• Read more here.

Senate Bill 14: Expanding Economic Opportunity.

• Restore overtime protection to 6 million workers.
  
• Increase the minimum wage for 7.4 million workers.
  
• Eliminate tax incentives for companies that take jobs overseas.
  
• Create new jobs through an expansion of infrastructure programs to repair America’s backbone.
  
• Pursue a trade policy that protects American workers.
  
• Read more here.

Senate Bill 15: Quality Education for All.

• Increase support for pre-school education.
  
• Fully fund No Child Left Behind and improve its implementation.
  
• Create tuition incentives for college students to major in math, science and special education.
  
• Providing relief from skyrocketing college tuition.
  
• Increasing the size and access to Pell Grants.
  
• Read more here.

Senate Bill 16: Making Health Care More Affordable.

• Make prescription drugs more affordable through the legalization of prescription drug reimportation.
  
• Ensure drugs are monitored after they are approved for use.
  
• Ensure that all children and pregnant women will have health care.
  
• Offer tax credits to small businesses.
  
• Read more here.

Senate Bill 17: Democracy Begins at Home.

• Reform the voting system in this country by creating Federal standards for our elections.
  
• Add verification, accountability and accuracy to the voting system.
  
• Increase access to the polls with Election Day registration, shorter lines and early voting.
  
• Modernize our election equipment while providing the resources to the states to implement the bill.
  
• Read more here.

Senate Bill 18: Meeting Our Responsibility to Medicare Beneficiaries.

• Repeal the provision that prevents Medicare from negotiating better prices.
  
• Eliminate the slush fund for HMOs.
  
• Improve the prescription drug benefit by phasing out the current doughnut hole.
  
• Buy down the Part B premium so premium increases are not too steep.
  
• Ensure that no seniors are forced into HMOs.
  
• Read more here.

Senate Bill 19: Fiscal Responsibility for a Sound Future.

• Restore the Senate pay-as-you-go rule.
  
• Reinstate sequestration to enforce pay-go and discretionary spending limits.
  
• Ensure that any legislation increasing deficits is subject to full scrutiny, debate, and consideration in the Senate.
  
• Prohibit the fast-tracking of Congressional budget resolutions that contain a reconciliation instruction that would worsen the deficit.
  
• Read more here.

Senate Bill 20: Putting Prevention First.

• Increase access to family planning services.
  
• Improve contraceptive coverage by assuring equity in prescription drug insurance.
  
• Provide relief to Medicaid by decreasing the financial burden of pregnancy-related and newborn care.
  
• Read more here.

In my estimation, this is pretty damn encouraging. I really hope this means we're actually going to have a functioning opposition party. Let's play some offense!

Make sure you take the time to co-sponsor this agenda and don't miss Steve Soto's breakdown of the bills.

Maxspeak, You Listen! has the actual word documents being circulated. Here are the MS Word documents on election reform, fiscal policy, veterans, economic policy, Medicare, education, reproductive rights, health care, supporting the troops, terrorism, and "Keeping America's Promise." Also, I just called Reid's office and they said the actual text of the Bills is not available yet as they haven't introduced them.

Me again -- GO CO-SPONSOR THESE BILLS!!!