IF Dems win in 2014, what should they do that would help US the most and help them in 2016?

[yurbud]

They have a chance of clearing the table in 2014, but by being too corporate compliant, they could blow their chances for 2016, and screw the rest of us too.

What are some bold moves they could make if they have the House, Senate, and White House that would do the most good, politically and in the real world?

[LonePirate]

1. Raise the minimum wage and pass immigration reform

[W_HAMILTON]

21. Raise the minimum wage.

That was my first thought. Better yet, "REFORM" the minimum wage. Raise it and tie it to inflation so that it raises itself automatically each year.

[BlueCaliDem]

27. And pass the American Jobs Bill - el pronto!

Americans crave jobs desperately. Our economy desperately NEEDS them. The American Jobs Bill together with the PPACA will provide enough to start with that will make the American people happy enough to want to continue this trend through the 2016 presidential elections.

And Democrats should stop being shy about touting their policies that make the American people happy.

We need to have a Democrats control the WH, the Senate, and the U.S. House to push this country forward and to wait out Scalia and Kennedy until they either keel over in their seats or are forced to retire so that a Democratic president and a Democratic Senate can put Progressives in their seats. We need to neuter ol' Chief Justice Roberts. It's the only way to kill the CU ruling.

[Swede Atlanta]

2. Enact the President's Jobs Bill.....

for starters

Secondly remove all corporate welfare from the budget...no more giveaways to the oil and gas industries, agra-business, etc. and strip the tax code of any such nonsense....Exxon getting billions in REFUNDS.

Pass ENDA, pass immigration reform, pass legislation intended to dampen the negative effects of Citizen's United, pass legislation intended to thwart the SC's evisceration of the Civil Rights Act....to name a few.

[yurbud]

5. all the corporate welfare could pay for everyone to go to college for FREE

The total cost of everyone going to college every year is about $100 billion.

Oil subsidies alone are about $30 billion.

Throw out a couple of more industries, and you've got free higher ed for all.

Throw out a couple of more, and the federal government could subsidize smaller class sizes at all K-12 schools.

[PoliticAverse]

3. They aren't going to have a filibuster proof majority in the Senate, so first they

would need to bring the talking filibuster back so the Senate no longer requires 60 votes to pass any bill.

[yurbud]

4. They should just get rid of it altogether. The existence of the Senate itself gives minority

disproportionate power.

A handful of the least populous states could thwart the will of the vast majority even if the Senate only required 51 votes to pass anything.

[Art_from_Ark]

12. Bad idea

Right now, the Senate can put the brakes on whatever cockamamie scheme the Republican-controlled House dreams up. And as long as the United States consists of individual states, then each state should get equal representation in part of the legislative process.

And with 51 votes required to pass a bill in the Senate, it would still require Senators from at least 25 states to defeat a bill-- hardly a "handful" of states

[joshcryer]

14. Replacing the "virtual filibuster" for an actual filibuster wouldn't change that.

It would just mean Senators would have to actually filibuster for real, with long, hours long, days long speeches, if they really really wanted to block legislation.

As it stands now they go "I shall filibuster indefinitely." The rules say, "OK, you are now filibustering indefinitely." And business continues as usual.

edit: quite literally they go on to other legislation as the "virtual filibuster" is happening, which is sort of insane when you think about it, a filibuster should stop all action in the Senate. That's what makes them so important. Someone (OK, two or more people, realistically) filibustering for weeks on end would make the news, they would have to actually own the filibuster. As it stands now it just happens and no one feels it except those waiting for legislation to pass.

[JeffHead]

29. Make them filibuster like they do in Texas.

No leaning on the podium, no bathroom breaks, make them stay on point so they can't just read the phone book, green eggs and ham or some other garbage.
Implement those rules and filibusters will be few and far between.

[yurbud]

22. that business with the House is the very short term. Does your last line mean you agree with

doing away with the filibuster?

My problem with it is the Republicans have used it far too much, and when in the minority, Democrats rarely used it at all, and even then only after massive public pressure.

[Art_from_Ark]

39. I've got mixed feelings about the filibuster

On the one hand, it has been abused a lot recently by Republicans to defeat legislation that would have, for example, eliminated bu$h tax cuts for millionaires, reduced handouts to oil companies, and provided emergency relief for senior citizens. And Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson declared their intention to filibuster the public option, to the detriment of millions of Americans

On the other hand, the filibuster has also been used to try to stop bad legislation, as recently exemplified by Wendy Davis in the Texas legislature. And Robert Byrd used the filibuster to speak out against the Iraq War.

[avebury]

38. I have no faith what so ever in achieving any

reforms on the filibuster. Harry Reid caves every time on the issue.

[Motown_Johnny]

6. Immigration, Jobs Bill, Raise Corporate Tax Rate, Raise Minimum Wage.

[yurbud]

7. on taxes, I would START that Wall St. transaction tax and say in the event of any future bailouts...

that tax will be raised to make up what we loan them within a year.

[LaydeeBug]

8. Fairness Doctrine and Glass/Steagall nt

[Blue Idaho]

9. Excellent ideas one and all - can we finally fix the Post Office too? nt.

[yurbud]

10. or make corporations prefund their pensions equally far ahead.

[davidpdx]

11. Honestly I don't see enough of a shift happening, even with the current snitfit the Republicans

are making. With the gerrymandering and safe districts there won't be that many competitive races. In Oregon for instance I see 0% chance of a change (granted that is good given our delegation is 6-1 D to R). We'd have to pick up 17 or 18 seats. Not impossible, but improbable. The Senate will stay close as well.

I think the shift will happen in 2016.

[Warren DeMontague]

13. Public Option.

They think people like Obamacare now? Just wait.

[Fumesucker]

15. Single payer, zero copay, zero deductible

Or even better yet, an NHS.

If you're going to fantasize might as well go whole hog and health care is either a right or it isn't.

[Warren DeMontague]

16. I agree.

I'm not 100% convinced an NHS would be preferable to a SPHC, but I do believe a SPHC is absolutely the way to go.

[yurbud]

33. I belong to Kaiser Permanente which is insurance & provider rolled into one...

which is the kind of one stop shopping you would get with an NHS.

It is a lot simpler than introducing your insurance to your provider every time you need to see a different kind of specialist--or figuring out which specialist to see in the first place.

[Warren DeMontague]

37. Yeah, I'm pretty familiar with Kaiser.

I've heard both negative and positive.

[leftstreet]

24. +1

[B Calm]

17. Stop the insane free trade agreements

[yurbud]

25. I would consider a split roll corporate tax with a higher rate for retailers than manufacturers

retailers can't leave: they want to sell to people here.

[seveneyes]

18. Stop moving jobs out of America an bring back the ones we lost

Repair our crumbling infrastructure.

[B Calm]

28. Exactly why we need tariffs!

If it costs a manufacturer one dollar in labor costs to make a product here, but can go overseas and make the same product for 10 cents, then we need a ninety cent tariff if they plan to sell it here. This would stop the off shoring of our jobs and also provide much needed revenue to run our country!

[randome]

19. Automatic raising of the debt ceiling.

So we never have to go through this bullshit again.

Then immigration reform, a jobs bill and indexing the minimum wage.

Sit back and watch the world economy soar.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]I'm always right. When I'm wrong I admit it.
So then I'm right about being wrong.[/center][/font][hr]

[PeteSelman]

20. I think we have to forget about them not cowtowing to corporate interests.

While all this love is going on because the baggers are idiots, we have to remember that The President is pushing for TPP big time. I'm sorry but he's really not a friend to labor and expecting him or this party to do the right thing by the People is dreamland material.

The House did a lot of great things in 2009-10 but the Senate killed almost all of it. If Reid had done the right thing and killed the stupid 60 vote rule we could have enacted most of that agenda and been in a boom time. But alas, he did not and we are living in austerity.

Will it be better without all the bagger assholes gumming up the works? Absolutely. But it will be far from paradise or even acceptable. The days of America working at full employment and good wages are long over.

[yurbud]

26. yep--Dems can act very progressive when there's no chance of enacting anything...

Here in California, a single payer bill made it through the legislature and ended up on Schwarzenegger's desk TWICE. Of course he vetoed it. Now that we have a Democratic governor and Democratic supermajorities in both chambers, it FAILED to get out of the state senate.

[B Calm]

23. Medicare for ALL

[JeffHead]

30. Get money the fuck out of politics!

That will cure over half of what ails this country right there.

[Richardo]

31. Repeal the Debt Ceiling Act

It's 100 years old and totally obsolete.

[geek tragedy]

32. Immigration reform and jobs bills. nt

[M.G.]

34. Wages and Jobs

Raise the minimum wages, create jobs through a reinvigorated national infrastructure program.

[Egalitarian Thug]

35. "It's (still) the economy, stupid". - Carville

The banks must be reined in, the so-called financial industry has to be neutered, and the military needs to be re-defined and re-purposed.

If they're not stupid about it, they can give this to the people quickly enough that they can begin to see the benefits in their lives in time for the 2016 election.

Failing that, even fighting for it would turn even more people toward the 'D'.

But you and I both know that, even if these things were proposed, they will never be allowed.

[rrneck]

36. Tax the rich. Go get our money out of all those tax havens all over the world. Make them pay. nt

[yurbud]

41. they don't even have to call it a tax--call it reparations for Reaganomics and intentional fraud

but I repeat myself.

[1000words]

40. Repeal the Patriot Act