Democratic Majority in Congress During Bush's First Term

[redlightning]

What if during the 2000 election, the House and Senate mostly remained in the hands of the Democrats? How would this change Bush's presidency and especially regarding the vote that allowed the Iraq War to happen?

 

[Promita Banik]

War happens regardless, the were many democrats who were even more hawkish than Reps like Hillary, Lieberman and Dashcle. As I recall Dems controlled the Senate during Bush's first two years and he got pretty much everything he wanted anyway. Maybe a smaller Bush tax cut for millionaires and Medicare Part D would supply more money for doctors as opposed to Big Pharma. I could see Dems making a big push for minimum wage increase and possibly a compromised solution on privatized health insurance a la Obamacare. It much more popular with conservatives without the Kenya socialist boogeyman to scare them.

 

[Know Nothing]

I don't see much change, as this is pre-January 2009. What that means is that while most Democrats opposed many parts of Bush's agenda, they didn't randomly throw wrenches into the legislative process to prevent Bush's legislation from getting voted on, at least until his second term.

In any event, the Senate is 50-50 until Jeffords defects from Republicans in May 2001, and Republicans have a slim 221-212 House majority at the beginning of 2001. Even if Democrats have the Senate at the beginning due to Chuck Robb defeating George Allen in Virginia or Brian Schweitzer defeating Conrad Burns in Montana, not much will change IMO.