Here’s The Democrat’s Plan

Read the highlights of these planned bills that the Democrats in the Senate are going to introduce. Summary courtesy of manyoso at Daily Kos. Which ones are you for or against?

Senate Bill 11: Standing With Our Troops.

• Increase our military end strength by up to 40,000 by 2007.
• Create a Guard and Reserve Bill of Rights.
• Fight for the families of soldiers by providing income security and affordable health care.

Senate Bill 12: Targeting the Terrorists More Effectively.

• Increase our Special Operations forces by 2,000.
• Target the institutions that spawn new terrorists.
• Expand the pace and scope of programs to eliminate and safeguard nuclear materials.

Senate Bill 13: Fulfilling Our Duty to America’s Veterans.

• Expand the availability and accessibility of mental health care.
• Ensure that no veteran is forced to choose between a retirement and disability check.
• Commitment to the soldiers of today a 21st Century GI Bill.

Senate Bill 14: Expanding Economic Opportunity.

• Restore overtime protection to 6 million workers.
• Increase the minimum wage for 7.4 million workers.
• Eliminate tax incentives for companies that take jobs overseas.
• Create new jobs through an expansion of infrastructure programs to repair America’s backbone.
• Pursue a trade policy that protects American workers.

Senate Bill 15: Quality Education for All.

• Increase support for pre-school education.
• Fully fund No Child Left Behind and improve its implementation.
• Create tuition incentives for college students to major in math, science and special education.
• Providing relief from skyrocketing college tuition.
• Increasing the size and access to Pell Grants.

Senate Bill 16: Making Health Care More Affordable.

• Make prescription drugs more affordable through the legalization of prescription drug reimportation.
• Ensure drugs are monitored after they are approved for use.
• Ensure that all children and pregnant women will have health care.
• Offer tax credits to small businesses.

Senate Bill 17: Democracy Begins at Home.

• Reform the voting system in this country by creating Federal standards for our elections.
• Add verification, accountability and accuracy to the voting system.
• Increase access to the polls with Election Day registration, shorter lines and early voting.
• Modernize our election equipment while providing the resources to the states to implement the bill.

Senate Bill 18: Meeting Our Responsibility to Medicare Beneficiaries.

• Repeal the provision that prevents Medicare from negotiating better prices.
• Eliminate the slush fund for HMOs.
• Improve the prescription drug benefit by phasing out the current doughnut hole.
• Buy down the Part B premium so premium increases are not too steep.
• Ensure that no seniors are forced into HMOs.

Senate Bill 19: Fiscal Responsibility for a Sound Future.

• Restore the Senate pay-as-you-go rule.
• Reinstate sequestration to enforce pay-go and discretionary spending limits.
• Ensure that any legislation increasing deficits is subject to full scrutiny, debate, and consideration in the Senate.
• Prohibit the fast-tracking of Congressional budget resolutions that contain a reconciliation instruction that would worsen the deficit.

Senate Bill 20: Putting Prevention First.

• Increase access to family planning services.
• Improve contraceptive coverage by assuring equity in prescription drug insurance.
• Provide relief to Medicaid by decreasing the financial burden of pregnancy-related and newborn care.