POLL: What should the #1 issue be for the next Congress?

[Harper_is_Bush]

Poll question: POLL: What should the #1 issue be for the next Congress?

Given the excellent chance that Democrats will be in control of Congress for at least the next two years, and given the not-so-excellent chance that someone from Congress reads this forum, what do YOU feel they should push as the #1 priority issue?

[Tarc]

1. Every newly installed committee head

Should start blowing the dust off of this administration's activities, hearings out in the open for all to see.

[Subdivisions]

2. Attempting any legislation with Bush still in office will be an

excercise of futility and a gigantic waste of time. They need to spend the remaining two years of Bushes term to investigate every little tendril of corruption and criminal activity.

[madokie]

3. and expose it for what it is, Treason

[Ravy]

13. Movements to impeach will be the same exercise in futility.

But I agree investigations (for possible criminal prosecution and war crimes), blocking new Bush initiatives, passing or repealing whatever legislation they can is the ticket.

Making the Republicans block good public agendas (or Bush vetoing them) will help us in '08 too.

[barb162]

20. It won't be a waste of time at all.

Bush will be emasculated if Dems win both Houses and play their cards right.

[npincus]

4. IRAQ, people!

We have to get the fuck out of there- our guys are dying.

Then, IMPEACH.

[Strawman]

5. Wages

Over the past 30 years for 80% of the population they've been flat, for most of the next 10 percent they've been nearly flat while they top 1% have seen theirs rise exponentially. If we don't restructure this economy to fix this soon, kiss democracy goodbye.

[Warpy]

6. Campaign finance reform should be top on the list

but we know it's not going to happen and even if it did, Stupid would veto it.

Starting investigations into the massive racketeering organization known as the GOP is a top priority. If Stupid starts vetoing everything that crosses his desk only because it came out of a Dem Congress, they'll need all the public support they can get to throw his ass out of office, and they may not have a choice about that.

[onenote]

7. no single issue

We cannot make any one issue the #1 issue. We need to focus on multiple issues: the war in iraq and the war in terror, minimum wage and health care, lobbying reform and other "corruption" issues.

And we need to force the repubs to cast votes on issues the way they've forced Democrats to cast votes. Minimum wage, for example, is one where we absolutely must push for a vote, even if the repubs still had the ability to block it in the Senate.

[acmavm]

8. Can't do anything that the signing statement clown won't screw

up so I say try to find as much dirt on his ass so that the trial that I imagine practically every waking moment and dream about every night really does happen.

[OneBlueSky]

9. stop the bleeding . . .

the financial bleeding, the military bleeding, the healthcare bleeding, the education bleeding, the environmental bleeding, the corporate control of Congress bleeding, and all the rest of it . . .

before you can fix anything, you have to first stop the bleeding . . .

[SheilaT]

14. You've best expressed

what I want to say.

There shouldn't be one single issue, and simply investigating corruption and the like will mean that NOTHING will get done. We've been put into a very deep financial hole, and we need to start to do what needs to be done to get out of it. And the main cuts should come from the military. The main new sources of revenue need to be corporations and wealthy individuals. Companies should simply not be allowed to move "off-shore" to avoid their share of taxes.

And this should go whether the Democrats win big next month, or the Republicans consolidate their power, or something in between.

But that's what should happen, not what will happen, again regardless of the election outcome.

[ProfessorGAC]

21. Yep! My Analogy Is. . .

. . .one doesn't worried about the next recipie for chili when the stove is on fire.

Job one: Put the fire out!
The Professor

[Harper_is_Bush]

10. 13 for Investigations, 1 for Global Warming

And the 1 for Global Warming was me.

Can't say I'm not dissappointed.

Although investigations might present the most satisfaction for angry Americans, Global Warming should be the #1 issue.

It matters little that Bush will veto anything sent to his office on the matter, it will demonstrate that Dems are concerned with saving our world. It will earn democrats credibility for generations to come.

That's not to say that investigations aren't important and shouldn't be done, but Global Warming should be right out front. Time to wash away all of the Inhofe dirt.

Hey, I just thought of a happy compromise....INVESTIGATE INHOFE!!!

edit: 22 for investigations, 1 for Global Warming. sigh.

[NaturalHigh]

11. The economy.

Clinton had that one pegged over a decade ago.

[sallyseven]

16. Tax the rich back to where it was before he let them off the

hook. Investigations should be left to the Hague. Domestic screw ups should be brought out and those people go to jail.

[jarnocan]

12. Impeach for peace, restore democracy

then work on evertyhing else that has been harmed in the last 6 years or so.... ENVIRONMENT, and our common good.

[quispquake]

15. Media Reform

The media MUST be made to balance views again...until this is done, unless there is a sensationalistic event like Foley, major events like Condolizard's lies last week just won't be reported...Other than Olbermann, there is NO left views in the media any more, and until we can respond in a public area, the corporate media will continue to browbeat any meaningful political dialogue.

[Harper_is_Bush]

17. 40 for investigations, 1 for Global Warming.

That's sad.

[barb162]

19. I think so too. There are way more important problems

like Iraq, loss of American jobs, the economy, GLOBAL WARMING, the environment in general, etc

[sweetheart]

18. Right now, 'Darfur'

A mass murder can be stopped, being overlooked again because of race, but north korea tested a dud!

Then all the issues can be dealt with by using the same maxim, "the war is over." 4 words. The iraq war is
over, the drugs war is over, the war on the united nations is over, the war on islam is over, the war on
americans is over too. 'Ending the bloody wars' is simply to defund them, to cut it off at the knees,
next year's new DEA budget is 1 million dollars, the bankrupt jobless wonder can't afford to bear the debt
of the wars, machinery of empire creaking under the structural load of too much patriarchy.

[underpants]

22. CUT MIDDLE CLASS TAXES

If they have half a brain in their heads the first thing they will do is roll back the top heavy Bush taxes and VERY PUBLICLY give the middle class a tax cut (say about $2-3K) and remind they that they would have had that all the Bush years had they been in charge.

They can wash away the tax myths that the right has been able to establish in one fell swoop.

[Exiled in America]

23. Restoring Civil Rights and the Rule of Law.

Part of what it will take to restore civil rights will be a complete and aggressive investigation of this Administrations actions, which will unavoidably lead to resignations and / or impeachment - as well it should.

However, the focus of Congress should be broader than that. It should be about restoring the rule of Law in America. That means, undoing the draconian stripping of due process and privacy rights undertaken by this administration - that's step one to moving back toward an America that upholds its own constitutional bill of rights.

Step two will be to aggressively challenge the ways this administration flaunts and undermines the law in the name of the "unitary executive." That includes going after Bush's flagrant misuse of signing statements as a license to not obey the law any time he sees fit. It will include aggressively investigating the administration's willingness to ignore treaties and conventions (such as the Geneva conventions) to which it is a signatory member. It will include aggressive investigation of the administrations flagrant lies to the american people about the pretext for the Iraq War, as well as an investigation into whether or not members of the administration willfully lied to congress, either in the information presented in support of the initial Iraq War Resolution, or in subsequent testimony either to the 9/11 commission, or from DOD officials to oversight committees.

Step three will be to simultaneously develop and push for a plan to get American troops out of a failed Iraq occupation, and also investigate and PROSECUTE war profiteers. Serious questions need to be asked about why we went to war, who benefited, how did the benefit, and were those actions legal. Any corporation engaged in war-profiteering needs to have their corporate charter revoked. Now I know that will never happen, but it just felt good to say.

Congress needs to make a loud and bold statement: the unbridled assault on the US Constitution and the Rule of Law is OVER.

[Guaranteed]

24. Media deconglomeration or alternative energy.

Yeah, Bush is a criminal. Arrest him. But- what are the ROOTS of our problems? Let's identify them, and yank them out. That is what is important.

[AspenRose]

25. Restore the fairness doctrine

eom

[0rganism]

26. Accountability = #1 issue, pervades everything else

Corruption and war profiteering cannot be allowed to pass for free, or even on the cheap.