President Obama and Senate Democrats "agreed on Tuesday to a three-bill agenda that they believe will strengthen their party for November’s midterm elections," The Hill reports.
Democrats agreed to send the Wall Street reform conference report, an extension of unemployment benefits and legislation bolstering credit for small businesses to Obama’s desk in the next two weeks.
They calculate that all three bills fit the party’s campaign narrative that Democrats are standing up for working people while Republicans act for Wall Street and corporate interests.
The three-bill agenda also embraces the notion that politics is the art of the possible, for the party appears to have the votes to pass these pieces of legislation.
They also expect "to win confirmation of Obama’s second pick for the Supreme Court, Solicitor General Elena Kagan, and move an emergency spending bill for the Afghanistan and Iraq wars."
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) "announced that the Senate will take up energy legislation before the August recess, but it is far from clear whether that bill will reach Obama’s desk."
Senators acknowledge that "once members return from recess on Sept. 13, little legislating will be possible before the election."
(credit image – daylife/getty)
Congress in Your Pocket
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