A Historic State Of The Union address

A historic State of the Union address

I can appreciate that a State of the Union address may only serve to capture particular moments and events in time. But as I anticipate President Bush's seventh State of the Union address, I am reminded of the words of former United States Sen. Robert Kennedy, who said, "Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation."

Our nation has changed significantly in recent months. Nowhere will the change be more evident than in the person who will preside over tonight's joint session of the United States Congress, the first woman Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. But the change has been about much more than gender.

Pelosi led Democrats back to majority status for the first time in 12 years and we have responded by changing the culture in Washington. We took up the mandate for change and immediately ushered through a major ethics reform package and, with the support of an average 62 Republican votes, we passed six pieces of legislation that honored our campaign promises to the American people.

Our widely bipartisan "100 Hours" agenda was a response to the historic November elections and concrete evidence of our commitment to working together in Congress to meet the needs of the citizenry rather than the special interests.

We passed a broadly supported ethics reform package to restore the trust of the American people in the Congress. We worked to strengthen security for Americans at home and abroad with legislation to implement the 9/11 Commission recommendations. We passed an increase in the minimum wage for the first time in a decade. We expanded stem cell research and broadened hope for a cure to many diseases. We made healthcare more affordable by requiring the federal government to negotiate lower drug prices on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries. We improved access to higher education by cutting the interest rate on student loans. And finally, we established our energy independence by increasing investment in renewable, homegrown biofuel energy. Each of these initiatives will help us write another chapter in this generation's history.

Now the president must be willing to play a role in our nation's changing history. Will he offer more of the same or respond to the mandate for change created by the American people?

Their mandate removed a rubber-stamp Congress and replaced it with one that is committed to upholding its constitutional responsibility of oversight and open debate.

The president will no doubt make the trip down Pennsylvania Avenue with a speech that is filled with conciliatory language and promises of bipartisanship. We welcome that approach and stand ready (just a few weeks later) to comb his draft of the federal budget, which will outline his true agenda, in fine detail.

We expect him to address the great challenges faced by this nation in the areas of healthcare, immigration, education, energy independence and, of course, the war in Iraq.

But if the Iraq war is any indication, we face an uphill battle on bipartisanship cooperation from the White House. Even after an unequivocal demand for change from voters and a clear strategy outlined by his own bipartisan Iraq Study Group, the president has made clear he doesn't accept their plan for change. Instead, he is asking the country to sacrifice more military personnel and resources to escalate the war in Iraq, a strategy we've tried several times before with little lasting success.

To date, President Bush has not convinced the American people that the increased sacrifice will bring victory. A president cannot sustain a war that is not supported by the American people. Democrats will hold his plan up to a vote in Congress, and his emergency supplemental appropriations request up to scrutiny and oversight.

We are all responsible for writing this generation's history. Democrats want the history to be one of hope and action. The American people have already shown that they want this history to be one of change. For this president, the State of the Union is an opportunity to offer his perspective on this generation's history.

While the President is one of the few who has the power to "bend" history, every member of Congress must stand ready to act as agents of change and help write a history of which all Americans will be proud.

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