'A Fair Shot For Everyone' income equality strategy is devised by Chuck Schumer. Senate Dems unveil election agenda

Senate Democrats unveiled on Wednesday a strategy they believe can preserve their majority: pairing campaign-style votes with legislation that might actually get some Republican support.

Democrats hope to to draw bright contrasts with Republicans on issues that appeal to the Democratic base like the minimum wage, paycheck fairness for women and protecting Medicare benefits. But they also want to push bills that could get some GOP buy-in, such as proposals to spur manufacturing and increase energy efficiency.


“We want to work with our colleagues. But we’re also our going to make crystal clear whose side each party is on. Democrats are fighting for a fair shot for everyone, while Republicans are doing the bidding of the Koch brothers, the wealthy and huge corporations,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who devised the party’s direction this year along with Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “That’s the distinction we will draw in November.”

Some of the plan’s prongs are hardly new. Democrats, for instance, have spent months talking about raising the minimum wage as part of a campaign to battle income inequality. And that familiarity was evident at the roll-out for Democrats’ plan, when Democratic leaders faced far more questions from reporters about an enrollment extension for Obamacare than the party’s 2014 agenda.

“This agenda is what the American people want to hear. You folks all want to ask about Obamacare. But the American people, most of them aren’t directly affected by Obamacare. They want to hear what we’re going to do for them,” Schumer said.

The dual-faced strategy, dubbed “A Fair Shot For Everyone,” illustrates the tightrope that Democrats are walking this year in their uphill battle to retain their Senate majority. Democratic leaders want to blunt GOP criticism that they’re only focused on divisive priorities by pushing some bipartisan bills — but it’s clear the party’s focus is shifting to campaign style tactics and crystallizing Democrats’ differences with Republicans in the coming months.

It’s a strategy Democrats used to great effect in 2012 — and they are confident it will work again. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said his caucus coalesced around the agenda on Tuesday while getting updated by DSCC Chairman Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) on Democrats’ defense of the Senate.

“Believe me, my senators walked out of their with smiles on their faces,” Reid said.

After expected approval this week of another core Democratic issue — reviving expired unemployment insurance benefits — Senate Democrats will force votes in early April on raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour and on equal pay for men and women, likely coordinated around “Equal Pay Day” on April 8. Both bills are expected to fail — but in doing so Democrats can blame Republicans for obstructing poll-tested legislation during an election year and stoke progressive opposition to the GOP.

And if the GOP says they prefer to tinker with the tax code rather than raise the minimum wage, Democrats may counter by forcing a vote on the Earned Income Tax Credit, daring the GOP to block a tax deduction for low-income workers written by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.).

“We’re looking to the future, they’re stuck in the past,” Reid said of Republicans. “These are not just Democratic agenda items. This is an agenda for the middle class.”

That formula could continue well into primary season, with Democrats also itching for votes on the Buffett Rule that would raise taxes on millionaires and end tax breaks for businesses that ship jobs overseas.

“Summed up in three words: Political show votes,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Wednesday morning. “One more year of turning the Senate floor into a campaign studio.”

But Senate Democrats say campaign-style Senate floor tactics won’t make up the entirety of the agenda. At February’s Senate Democratic retreat, Reid instructed Schumer and Stabenow to come up with a balanced agenda of stalwart progressive issues plus bills that appeal to Republicans, like energy efficiency legislation from Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and a manufacturing bill co-sponsored by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), a member of GOP leadership. Other bipartisan bills could include drug sentencing reform and a media shield law.

Using this formula, Democratic leaders have sketched out an agenda all the way into the dog days of summer, planning votes on legislation later this year to lower interest rates for student loans, protect Medicare, boost infrastructure investment, train workers and help small businesses in addition to issues the reflect the party’s progressive core.

It’s a playbook that has Republicans scratching their heads and more eager than ever to talk about what they believe is preventing Americans from getting a fair shot: Obamacare.

“Obamacare is actively crushing peoples’ pocketbooks,” said one senior GOP aide. “Changing the subject doesn’t work.”

This article tagged under: Democrats

Elections

Senate Democrats