107th Congress with a Democratic Majority?

BP Booker

Banned
The 107th United States Congress meet during the first half of George W Bush first term, it had a very slim republican majority. It passed some extremely influential laws, amongst them Bush Tax Cuts of 2001, the PATRIOT Act, No Child Left Behind, Authorization of Force Against Terrorists (invasion of Afghanistan) and the Iraq Resolution

What if said Congress had had a slim Democratic majority? (Let’s say that the Republicans don’t win as many seats in 1994 and the Democrats close the gap little by little in 1996, 1998 and 2000) Would these acts have passed as they were or would the administration would have had to compromise significantly? Would any of them not have made it? I understand the Afghanistan resolution had only one vote against it, and the idea of action against Iraq in 2003 had considerable support, along with the fact that it would be political suicide to oppose an anti-terrorism bill so soon after 9/11, but what about the tax cuts and NCLB?

The Democrats would most likely lose their majority come 2004.
 
Well, the Democrats *did* control the Senate after Jeffords' defection. For the House, though, it is hard to see any scenario in which the Democrats win a majority in 2000 without also electing Gore president, given the extreme narrowness of Bush's victory in OTL. The problem with the suggestion, "well, maybe in this ATL they didn't lose as many seats in 1994" is that this would likely cause significant changes well before 2000 (depending on how many additional seats the Democrats had, it could even stop impeachment of Clinton in 1998).

However, let us assume it somehow happens without any major changes before 2000. The tax cut of 2001 in OTL passed the House by 230-197 *with thirteen Democrats voting for it* and not a single Republican opposed. http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2001/roll118.xml There were still a fair number of moderate-to-conservative Democrats in the House in those days; there were also more moderate Republicans than today but that was mostly on social, not economic, issues. So a House with a very narrow Democratic majority could still pass Bush's tax cut. In the Senate it passed 58-33 https://www.senate.gov/legislative/...ote_cfm.cfm?congress=107&session=1&vote=00170 so a slightly better Democratic showing there would not have mattered. As for No Child Left Behind, it passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Child_Left_Behind_Act
 
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BP Booker

Banned
Thanks! I am working on a TL in which Clintons impeachment fails in the house mainly in the dems having more seats, and the repercutions it would have had on the 2000 election, if Gore does decide to have Bill as a surrogate but with the effort failing anyways
 
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