From 2008 -2010, with Pelosi as leader, the House passed many bills geared to help the middle class. All of them died in the more conservative Senate (even with Dems having a majority, as there were several “Blue dog Dems”, and could not get past the filabuster).
There was also an immigration bill that passed the Senate in 2013, addressing many of the problems that are being discussed today. It had massive funding for border security, and the measure would not only increases security along the border, but requires a mandatory workplace verification system for employers, trying to ensure no jobs are given to immigrants who are not authorized to work in the United States. The Republican led House, refused to bring the bill up for a vote. Even though it appeared it would pass. The “deny Obama any kind of success” mantra was alive and well with republicans then.
Fast forward to today, and when the Dems take the House, they do not have the senate, nor the Executive. They will pass a lot of bills for the good of the country, some geared directly to the struggling middle class, and I predict every one of them will die in the Senate.
I would like to see a younger generation of progressives take some leadership roles, and that will happen, eventually.
(Also, to pick a nit, Pelosi is part of the Democratic party. There is no democrat party)
That “strategy” didn’t work in 2016. While a number of people have woken up since then, there are still enough Trumpophiles left that the Dems had better come up with a positive strategy, and well-articulated and communicated messages*. Historically, that’s far from a given.
*Such as whenever a Republican candidate (or one of their media proxies) says something like “Dems are for open borders”, there needs to be a consistent and coherent response like “That’s simply a lie. We believe in opportunity for immigrants who come here legally, with strict controls, but a wall is an expensive, ineffective and foolish approach.”
Need to see how the house plays out the next two years before we can go making any judgements. It’s why they won the house. Appealing to those middle class swing voters…
With a “unified” message, how does one choose one candidate over another? Methinks he has much more up his sleeve, such as getting whoever his favorite candidate is on the presidential ballot. If they all sound the same, it makes shenanigans more effective.
Who cares which candidate gets “pushed” to the front of the line when they all have the same message anyhow?
Pretty sure Elizabeth Warren won’t go for it…………………wacky as she is, her passion is noteworthy and irrepressible.
To be middle class you have to have a job and most middle class people have full-time jobs and heath insurance through their employers. Obamacare didn’t do anything to change that.
Obamacare was implemented to help the poor and working poor (working part-time jobs) to get access to health insurance.
Congress wasn’t interested in making it work or to be a help. As soon as the GOP took over they torpedoed it, namely in the early years by cutting funding.
The middle class is surviving just fine as long as they make reasonable decisions.
The poor and working poor are the ones that are drowning. But they don’t vote so appealing to them is likely to anger the middle class who does vote so it won’t win any elections.
A huge problem with healthcare is if a middle class person loses their job and have a catastrophic illness to contend with. The ACA would been a big help here as well.
Yes, it probably helps more poor, but it would have helped a LOT of middle class people.
If they loose their job and can’t work, then they aren’t really middle class anymore.
Let’s say I’m middle class and made $75K last year. In January I lose my job after exhausting sick leave and FMLA protected time off. This year I will make $471 from some stocks but I can’t work for a paycheck. Last year I was middle class, this year I’m poor.
