This is Compassionate Conservatism

Bob Geiger is doing his usual good work and has compiled a list of important measures the Republicans have said "NO" to in the last month-and-a-half:

• Money to provide for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. (Twice)
• Increasing the maximum Federal Pell Grant award by $200
• Providing additional funding for title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.
• Increasing appropriations for Head Start programs
• Additional funding for part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
• Funding for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program within the Health Resources and Services Administration.
• Increasing appropriations for after-school programs through 21st century community learning centers.
• Providing a 6-month transition period for coverage of prescription drugs under Medicaid for the elderly whose drug coverage is to be moved to the Medicare prescription drug program.
• Amending title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide the authority for negotiating fair prices for Medicare prescription drugs.
• Establishing a national commission on policies and practices on the treatment of detainees since September 11, 2001.
• Providing enhanced eligibility for retirement pay for non-regular service members in Iraq
• Amending the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide tax benefits for areas affected by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma.
• Repealing certain tax benefits relating to oil and gas wells intangible drilling and development costs.
• Reinstating for millionaires a top individual income tax rate of 39.6 percent, the pre-May 2003 rates of tax on capital gains and dividends, and to repeal the reduction and termination of the phase out of personal exemptions and overall limitation on itemized deductions, until the Federal budget deficit is eliminated.
• Sense of the Senate amendment concerning the provision of health care for children before providing tax cuts for the wealthy.
• Tax increase on incomes in excess of $1 million to eliminate child poverty.
• Providing an additional $500,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2006 through 2010, to be used for readjustment counseling, related mental health services, and treatment and rehabilitative services for veterans with mental illness, post-traumatic stress disorder, or substance use disorder.

And that's just since the middle of October.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, Democrats did indeed say "no" earlier this month to allowing drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We've also been the guys saying "no" to privatizing Social Security and continuing to mortgage our childrens' future by adding to the massive federal deficit.

We've been pretty consistent naysayers on the whole thing of giving rich people more tax cuts, while screwing the poor, elderly and needy. And we've also given a big "no" to being the party whose leadership is under chronic investigation and whose members should be forming an indictment-of-the-month club. More needless death and expense for an Iraq war predicated on lies? We give that a big thumbs-down too.

Thanks for the good work Bob.