Connecticut ping!
Please Freepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent Connecticut ping list.
Posted on 11/10/2006 7:55:14 AM PST by Graybeard58
WETHERSFIELD -- U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., says the next two years will provide Democrats a chance to shine or give themselves a shiner.
Democrats in Connecticut and across the country campaigned on a promise of change this year, and change is what voters wanted.
"I think we have an opportunity to prove that this wasn't just talk, but we can actually get things done," Dodd said Thursday.
However, he acknowledged that Democrats also risk blowing that opportunity and possibly the party's chances in the presidential and congressional elections of 2008.
But he is hopeful and confident that Democrats won't fail in the next two years.
"If we have got a chance of winning elections in 2008, it is going to be because we have proven that we can lead and govern well," he said.
Dodd said Democrats must reduce partisan gridlock and reach out to Republicans and the Bush administration. He said this is what the voters across the country demanded in Tuesday's elections.
Dodd outlined his views on the Democratic agenda in the new Congress in a news conference Thursday at his Wethersfield office. Within the first 100 hours, he said the new Democratic Congress should pass legislation to raise the federal minimum wage from $5.15 per hour to $7.15.
Dodd also said the Democrats should vote to roll back some of President Bush's tax cuts. He would only retain ones that benefit the middle class.
Dodd said Democrats need to overhaul the Medicare Part D program, such as allowing the federal government to directly negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies.
He also advocated action on universal health care, trade policy, transportation, housing, job creation, defense production and manufacturing.
As for his own future, Dodd said he expects to chair the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.
He is also exploring a possible run for the Democratic nomination for president. He expects to make a decision in January.
The war in Iraq was the overarching issue of the 2006 elections.
Dodd advocated the United States start withdrawing its troops from Baghdad, Fallujah and other Iraqi cities and having Iraqi forces take over security.
He said he is opposed to increasing U.S. troop levels, as some have advocated.
"I think that is a mistake," he said. "The Shias want you to stay because they want you to consolidate power. The Sunnis want to you to stay so they don't get overrun by the Shias. The Kurds want you to stay so they don't get overrun by the Shias and the Sunni."
Dodd expects Democrats will hold hearings on Iraq now that they are the majority.
But he said he doesn't believe Congress should investigate the lead-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq or the conduct of the war.
"I would be more interested in getting some good accounting of what is going on with the cost," Dodd said. "It is costing us $250 million a day, $4 billion a week, $16 billion a month for this war. There are a lot of questions that have been raised about where is the accountability of all of this."
Mr and Ms Middle Class will end up poorer; their future independence will be less secure.
Anti-capitalist Democrat socialists like Dipstick Dodd never learn. They don't understand how economies and markets work. They are forever trying to strangle the goose that lays the golden egg.
Ultimately, it will be a noticable IQ deficit that determines the fate of Dodd and his cronies.
Connecticut ping!
Please Freepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent Connecticut ping list.
This obnoxious fool has plans to run for the rat nomination. Ha ha ha. I can hardly wait for them to all enter the race: Biden, Dodd, Kerry, Hitlery and Bayh. Bayh will look the best.
The top slice of bread in the waitress sandwich.
This is one of the primary reasons democrats resist Social Security reform. They absolutely dread the day when virtually every American including the dishwashers, janitors, and bus drivers has a visible stake, however small, in the ownership class. Investment accounts in Social Security would be one of the greatest strokes for economic democracy in history. Naturally, the elitist left opposes it.
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