As part of their legislative rollout in the first 100 days of the new Congress, Democrats promise to attack the steady erosion of middle-class incomes by cutting the interest rate on federal student loans in half, from 6.8 to 3.4 percent.
Dem leaders point out that in the last four years, median family income has fallen by $1,300, while tuition at public four-year colleges has soared by 57 percent. Easing student debt is sure to have broad public appeal.
The Democratic agenda includes several other smart, bread-and-butter items that are polling well with the public, including a minimum-wage increase, bulk buying of Medicare prescription drugs, and rolling back some of the tax breaks for oil companies.
These issues could help the Democratic majority in Congress get off to a fast start in January.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
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76 Comments
Well I’m glad that’s true for you, but it hasn’t been for me or my family members.
Unless you’re in one of those rich jobs.
Farmers have told me their profits go up when a dem is in office, you have to wonder why so many farmers keep cutting off their noses to spite their faces.
But, Imust say, all my family who were farmers were also democrats.
Gee why doesn’t that surprise me.
The rich get richer…
Those are all side-dishes cooked up by the Democratic party’s public relations department. If those in Washington don’t stop the invasion of illegal aliens from south of the border, then there will no longer be a middle class voting block.
Hmmm! Maybe that’s the their strategy. Appeasement today, extinction tomorrow.
goat,Bush and congress had five years to solve the illegal alien problem. Don’t you think if they wanted to do so, they would have? From your post I’m assuming that you think the Democrats will also do nothing. I hope that is not the case. I really want the government to go after the companies that hire illegals and give the states the authority to arrest and hold illegals. It’s time the politicians grew a back bone and stopped catering to the legal immigrates wishes.
Uh Delores…you might want to check your history. Bill Clinton had EIGHT years to “solve the illegal alien problem”..did he stop it then? Obviously not.
Trying to place blame for illegal aliens on one political party is a shallow, finger pointing blame game that achieves nothing.
Ronald Reagan ALSO had 8 years to deal with the problem of invaders.
He chose amnesty.
It was under Reagan that the middle class started to disapppear. The damage has been so severe that it may be too late to save the middle class.
I am withholding my judgment of the Democrats until I see what really happens in the new Congress. What would benefit the middle class the most would be to curb illegal immigration, but then big business that has lined the pockets of the Republicans so much will be screaming like a bunch of little pigs.
Isn’t it funny that when someone criticizes George W. Bush, the initial knee jerk response is to critize Bill Clinton? Those Republicans just cannot let Bill Clinton go, can they?
raptor,My reference to the five years had to do with the 9/11 attack. Everyone has been saying that Bush has not done enough to secure our southern border. Sorry if I was not clear. As far as your Clinton comment, as always, blame Clinton. Clinton has been out of office for six years, so are you saying that Bush does not have any responsibility to fix the problem either?
I think if you read my post again, you will find that I believe no politician will solve the border problem until they get a back bone. That includes the Democrats!
Mulva is right, neither party will deal with the immigration mess. In the end it will lead to bloodshed.
Viva La Raza Blanco!!
lucee,Let me just say this about GW’s totally inept job as preznut…..
Bill Clinton!Bill Clinton!
Isn’t it funny that when someone criticizes George W. Bush, the initial knee jerk response is to critize Bill Clinton? Those Republicans just cannot let Bill Clinton go, can they?
Maybe we could let him go if he would just start acting like an expresident. No former president had criticized his successor. It was an unspoken rule. An acknowledgement from one who has held the job, that knows the trials and tribulations that go with being POTUS. But this bozo thinks hes so popular and loved that its his duty to undercut Bush at ever turn. And since he started doing it, Carter decided to also. Thank you Bill Clinton. Once again you have shown that there is nothing sacred and you have no morals behond your own narcissistic self.
Um, Clinton’s approval rating is STILL way up there, far more than Bush’s. I’m sorry you don’t like it but that BOZO (if he’s a bozo, what does that make Bush) IS wildly popular.
Chris – so you would have rather have ex-presidents not voice their opinions on the current president? Much like Gerald Ford did? Isn’t it ironic though that Ford also thought George W. Bush made a big mistake by invading Iraq.
But, back to the point, this is still America and ex-presidents are free to their opinions as you are Chris from Mac Town.
Wouldn’t it be a refreshing change if George W. Bush would actually seek out differing opinions on the issues of the day rather than going with his own opinion and trying to ram it down everyone’s throat?
The one thing Bill Clinton did prove was that anyone, and I do mean anyone, could become president of the United States.
Bill Clinton is significant because he demonstrated just how far as a nation we’ve declined.
Prior to Clinton one major scandal put you out of office. People had the integrity to at least resign.
With Clinton the scandals came at you so often that you simply couldn’t keep up with them.
Missiles to China, serial rape allegations, sexual harassment, land swindles, even snitching stuff from the White House as they went out the door.
You’d had to have been an archivist to have remembered all the scandals Clinton was involved in, and the missile deal alone will be the one that I believe comes back to haunt this country.
Traitor, rapist, corrupt to the core. Just trash. A far cry from having disaggreements over policy.
rapist? Never demonstraded no-name. Your claims are as empty as your name. As for the ’snitching stuff from the white house” that has been thoroughly debunked time and time again.
hey no name – why don’t you identify yourself? And do you think Nixon had the moral integrity to resign? No, my friend, he was forced to resign when the evidence was overwhelming. Pres Ford did do the right thing in pardoning Nixon for the sake of the country, unlike the Republicans who was hellbent on impeaching Clinton even though all they found was a lie about sex. I’m not defending Clinton on that one. He did commit perjury and should have been prosecuted and disbarred but a full blown impeachment? The Republicans then took over the White House and then the scandals really broke loose. How many sex scandals, bribery scandals, the K-Street gang and etc were there just in the last 6 years of Bush’s presidency?
No, my friend No Name, the scandals do not belong to just Clinton and the Democrats – they belong to both parties.
The Republicans spent over $75 million investigating Bill Cliton and the best they could come up with after six years is that he got a little head from a 22 year old intern.
That’s it.
Let’s spend $75 million investigating George W Bush and see what we can come up with….
As for resignations – apparently the Republicans have forgotten about Iran – Contra.
That was criminal and borderline treason.
rapist? Never demonstraded no-name. Your claims are as empty as your name. As for the ’snitching stuff from the white house” that has been thoroughly debunked time and time again
Just ask Juanita Broderick if Clinton is a rapist. Or Lisa Meyer of NBC News who interviewed her. Or how about Kathleen Wiley. Or any number of other women whose silence was bought by threats or other means.
You can believe that the reprobate is as pure as the driven snow and just a victim of a vast right wing conspiracy but you are living in deniel and thats not a river in Egypt.
Bill Clinton!!Bill Clinton!!
sheesh
If the rape allegations were true, Chris, why didn’t Starr and his band of perverts pursue charges?
The opposite is actually true – they didn’t find credible evidence.
But just for the hell of it, how does Clinton’s alleged crimes compare to the October Surprise of 1980 or the Iran – Contra Affair of the mid-Eighties?
Good, the sheeple are diverted into a spittle sraying hatefest of Clinton.
Don’t forget to thank the democratic congress for taking on and solving problems that have been ignored the last 6 years.
NEVER BUY THE EAGLE NEWSPAPER. EVER!
Touchy touchy…my comment, had anyone bothered to actually read it, simply stated that blaming one political party or person for an ongoing issue like illegal immigration, is a waste of time. It is not a problem unique to any one party.
and..of course, the knives come out, the attack dogs go nuts. Sheeesh..the attack mind set on this blog is unbelievable.
Well, Raptor, you were the one that brought up Bill Clinton……
I don’t think Dems need to comment on Repubs wasting money to investigate Bill Clinton.
Hillary Clinton spent 36 million dollars in her re-election to the United States Senate, running virtually unopposed. It appears it was a dream trip to the Political Mall of extravagant spending.
Imagine what’d she do if she ever became President! We’d be in a debt crisis after 2 months of her in office!
George Bush is a child rapist. Why isn’t THAT prosecuted?
Sorry, JM, we’re in a debt crisis right now.
And the money that Hillary spent was money donated to her campaign – not taxpayer dollars spent by Starr.
“…jingoism, racism, fear, religious fundamentalism: these are the ways of appealing to people if you’re trying to organize a mass base of support for policies that are really intended to crush them.”
Noam Chomsky, MIT professor of linguistics and social activist
It’s not illegal immigrants who are destroying the American dream, they have no power.
It’s the people with power in the BOARDrooms who have America so wrapped up in what happens in our BEDrooms that we don’t see how they’re robbing us blind.
Hey P-mom, Lucee, and WSClark. You really don’t want to start with me on the Clinton scandals? I’ve forgotten more about them than you will ever know. All you know is the James Carville-Paul Begala talking points.
My original point was that Clinton violated the taboo against critizing his successor. As for his high opinion numbers, well its easy to be popular when you don’t have to make the tough decisions anymore. And his popularity is an illusion. He was never as popular as the polls showed just as GW is not as unpopular as todays polls show. Opinion polling is always skewed to favor the Liberal over the Conservative. Clinton is the master at trying to be all things to all people. GW knows what he believes and he sticks to it regardless of political considerations. In the future, history will judge GW much kinder than Clinton
“I’ve forgotten more about them than you will ever know.”
In the words of your hero, George W Bush, bring it on!
What does any of this have to do with what the Democrats want to do for the middle class and the first 100 days agenda.I personally want something done about the terrible Medicare Prescription Drug program. The Dems are on the right track making drug pricing a top priority.Can we please get back to the topic, I’m very interesting in knowing what everyone on both sides thinks.
The 10:40 post from lucee was not mine. I must have hit the nail on someone’s head this morning because why else would this person post a false posting under my nic? Coward – pure and simple.
“He was never as popular as the polls showed just as GW is not as unpopular as todays polls show. Opinion polling is always skewed to favor the Liberal over the Conservative.”
And you know this because you studied advanced statistics and research methodology at a major university somewhere, so you know more than professional pollsters?
Polling methods today are very sophisticated and advanced. You can’t look at Bush’s approval ratings, higher only than Nixon’s, and say that America hasn’t finally wised up to the Worst. President. Ever.
Of course, they’ll always be a few dead enders in their last throes like you, Chris from McFearsome . . .
The rest of us know BUSH*T when we smell it.
The thread was diverted when the riech-wingers resorted to the ususal response to any criticism….
But, but, but……
Bill Clinton!!!!
Bill Clinton!!!!
Bill Clinton!!!!
It’s their universal answer to every question.
Why such hatred from you Chris from Mac Town? This is a political blog. Everyone is entitled to their opinion – even you.
I would like to return to the topic also. In my first posting, I am taking the ‘wait and see’ approach to the Democrats taking over the Congress. But I also don’t think the illegal immigration problem can be fixed by just the politicians in Washington, DC. It will take the cooperation of federal, state and local politicians and the employers willing to hire illegal immigrants. The issue is too large and too important to just give lipservice to it. We need to decide once and for all how to handle the situation.
Why do you care how much Hillary Clinton spent on her campaign? Are you from New York and was it your money? I’m sure there are quite a few candidates in both parties that have spent as much or even more. Why just target Hillary for your criticism?
Sunny,
Thirty Six million dollars spent on a campaign one is sure to win is obscene. Especially when all the extragant expenses that were reported.
Personally I think the $1 million dollars or whatever the expenses that Kline used is obscene. It seems this day, everyone has their hand out and jacks up the price of everything when a campaign is involved.
It’s a horrible waste of dollars better spent elsewhere.
People will complain that they don’t have 2 million to fix this or that, but campaign coffers will bulge from overflow from campaign contributors while the real needs of people get neglected.
I smell right wing fear….
GOOD!
Minimum wage? Yup gonna go up. THIS time it won’t be held hostage for a give back to our 2,000 most wealthy. That means a raise for EVERYONE.
Why such hatred from you Chris from Mac Town? This is a political blog. Everyone is entitled to their opinion – even you.
Why is my opinion called “hatred” just because I don’t sing from your hymm book? What do you call your opinions? Enlightened. I don’t think so.
I agree campaign funding is way out of line but it happens in both parties. Why just pick on Hillary? I would like to see this new Congress take up campaign funding also. Again, we shall see what we shall see. I’m not holding my breath for any needed changes. After all, we are talking about politicians.
Chris – it is obvious from your postings that you hate Bill Clinton and that is your perogative to do so. But to call the man a rapist when it was not proven or even investigated by Ken Starr is a bit extreme – don’t you think?
I don’t need no stinking proof! It is true because I SAY it is true.
The real question is why Chris supports pedophile Rapist Bush?
Chris from Meltdown has studiously avoided explaining how he has reached conclusions like “polls are always liberal” and “history will judge Bush higher than Clinton.”
I guess we in the “reality-based community” should just ignore him from now on . . .
Chris,
“No former president had criticized his successor. It was an unspoken rule.”
Gerald Ford criticized Bill Clinton, when Clinton was President.
“It’s not illegal immigrants who are destroying the American dream, they have no power.It’s the people with power in the BOARDrooms who have America so wrapped up in what happens in our BEDrooms that we don’t see how they’re robbing us blind.”
This is interesting about what CaptAmerica said.I haft way watched this show last Sunday night on the History Channel about the illegalization of marijuana in the U.S. and what has caught my full attention was how Mexican labor were brought in illegally for the purpose of working the orchards fields because of union strikes.What was interesting was that big businesses and government did this to break the Unions, after the disputes they force the illegal immigrants back to their own country in a very harsh manner.All this was done during the 1920’s era at a time of labor unrest of low wages, no benefits laws, no safety laws, high unemployment, etc. and etc.Big businesses and government alike in the U.S. and Mexico abused the hell out of people in the same fashion as slavery, what is hard to believe is that they are still doing that very same thing today at this very moment.I don’t sympathize with every immigrant’s problems but I do fear that we are at “RISK” not with just the illegal immigrants but from the very source of our own government’s intentions and their alignment with big business industrial ideologies.
Reading this blog makes me laugh. You libs were taken for a ride with Clinton and you can’t stand it. He was so disappointing to you.He IS a rapist and if you don’t believe it, put some ice on it.
Ah, it’s good to see that you made bail, Fleet.
Welcome back.
F*** bail. I broke out. Dirty Coppers!
The Dems should start with that first hundred hours and just keep the ball rolling. Already, they are making the wise decision to exclude Republicans from scheduling and other functions. This should continue. This is a chance to reverse SO much damage that the cons have done. They are fractured right now. Their President and party leader is an abject failure. Their three bases(gold,God, and georgew) are at war with each other for power. It is time to smash them to pieces and send them back into permamnent minority status.
Yeah, Dubya has always been such an upstanding man.
*Bush left a house he’d rented in Montgomery trashed — the furniture broken, walls damaged and a chandelier destroyed, the Birmingham News reported in February. “He was just a rich kid who had no respect for other people’s possessions,” Mary Smith, a member of the family who rented the house, told the newspaper, adding that a bill sent to Bush for repairs was never paid. And a month later, in December, during a visit to his parents’ home in Washington, Bush drunkenly challenged his father to go “mano a mano,” as has often been reported.*
More left wing crap from RD.You people taught us that if something happened more than 20 years ago, we should just Move On. What a bunch of liars.
fleetwood – perhaps you failed to notice that this was in response to the Clinton-bashing above. The difference is, this is relevant in that it shows the character of the man currently in charge.
Why is raising the minimum wage so important. Every time the minimum wage increases, the cost of living follows suit or even increases over the wage increase, nullifying the minimum wage increase.
It’s basic economics. If the cost of providing a good or service increases, then that cost is passed on as much as the market will bear. If the workers have more money, the market will bear more. So the price of everything increases.
Doesn’t pass the logic test.
hmmm-At least Bush hasn’t raped anyone.
“At least Bush hasn’t raped anyone.”
If you don’t count the fact that he’s raped this whole country.
What do sex crimes have to do with the GOP war on the middle class?The rich become DoD contractors, and the poor pour TNT.
SoldevDB said:Why is raising the minimum wage so important. Every time the minimum wage increases, the cost of living follows suit or even increases over the wage increase, nullifying the minimum wage increase.
The reason the minimum wage is so important is it keeps stupid people voting democrat. Where would the dems be without stupid people?
JR said: Minimum wage? Yup gonna go up. THIS time it won’t be held hostage for a give back to our 2,000 most wealthy. That means a raise for EVERYONE.
This statement by JR proves my point. Case closed.
Chris, tell us about your degree in economics please?
It’s basic economics. If the cost of providing a good or service increases (as it will with an increase in minimum wage), then that cost is passed on as much as the market will bear. If the workers have more money, the market will bear more. So the price of everything increases.You don’t need a degree for simple economic logic and principles.
No takers. Huh. Go figure.
Try this link and get back to me….
The inflation-adjusted value of the minimum wage is 30% lower in 2006 than it was in 1979.
http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/issueguides_minwage_minwagefacts
Or maybe instead of buying more cheap crap that they don’t need, consumers will value what they do buy more by paying more for it.
Or maybe CEO’s salaries will not increase 1000 fold like they have in the last 30 years and some of that wealth will finally flow to the people that produce the wealth.
You got the “simple” part right. Too bad about the “logic” part.
Ah but that increase in the price of goods and services goes up the line solie. This is particularly true in the service part of the equation.
“passed on as much as the market will bear”
Yup. But those on the high end of living have so squeezed the equation that they can’t “pass on” much anymore. They’ll have to take the hit here. And it’s about time.
If wages go up and the price of everything goes up, is anyone better off?
Yes, Steph, because the price of everything doesn’t go up.
Using your logic, CEO salaries which have rocketed upward are causing the rest of us to have less money because we have to pay for those costs.
Is that what you think? I suspect you’ll say no.
Then, if skyrocketing CEO pay doesn’t raise the cost of “everything,” neither will raising the minimum wage.
Ws,Got a few links for you as well, give me a second.
Cap’nLots of maybes in there.
“instead of buying more cheap crap that they don’t need, consumers will value what they do buy more by paying more for it.”
Wouldn’t that reduce the need for workers? Less demand and higher prices would equal higher unemployment wouldn’t it?
“Or maybe CEO’s salaries will not increase 1000 fold like they have in the last 30 years and some of that wealth will finally flow to the people that produce the wealth.”
That is a VERY optimistic wish. The salaries will continue to grow, and the increase the production people get will be negated by inflation.
Junior,
“have so squeezed the equation that they can’t “pass on” much anymore.”
That makes absolutely no sense. I don’t think that Burger King raising the price of a whopper will do much to ‘those on the high end’
Take a good look at where the minimum wage jobs reside….
aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/lwlm99/turner.htm
Bunch of links in this one
house.gov/jec/cost-gov/regs/minimum/case.htm
Capn,You are not using the economic equation. This is taught in entry level economics classes. I am not bashing you. But that is the principle. As the cost of a good or service increases, the seller will pass that cost on as much as the market will bear.
Be it minimum wage increase, taxation, CODB. Whatever, the seller will try to compensate.
To the extent that front-line wages (minimum) impact the cost of the product then a raise there will lead to an increase in price. However, that portion of the cost is generally small.
I remember one year when wheat costs went up and bread sky-rocketed – “because of the wheet”. Somebody calculated that the wheet in a loaf of bread was 3 cents – 6 cents. So, there was no reason for a price hike 50 centa – 1 dollar.
I asn’t using logic, CapnAmerica, I was just asking a question.
But thanks for telling me what I think, asshole.
Refine that: arrogant, pompous asshole.
Some argue that every ten percent increase in the minimum wage results in a loss of 100,000 jobs.
And some say that for every billion dollars worth of imported goods we lose 100000 jobs. Are we better off for that?
The big question is where do you strike the balance. If a business is so weak it cannot absorb the increased cost then it may fail anyway.
Another thing to look at are hidden costs to society. We pay more for health care food stamps rent subsidies ect. available to low income workers.
Steph
If you are applying for the position of foul mouthed conservative bitch? I think you just got hired.
Your Wal mart defense posts over on the open pretty much betrayed you.
I suggest you re-read my comments about Wal-Mart!