Wondering what may be first on the new Congress' and the new Obama administration's agenda? At a Nov. 7th press conference, his first as president-elect, Barack Obama announced that fixing the economy is "job one."
Obama told reporters, "I want to see a stimulus package pass sooner rather than later. If it doesn't get done in a lame-duck session of Congress, then it will be the first thing I do when I become president."
Most Americans expect that the new president would make the economy the first priority. But what about after that? Which of the major reforms that candidate Obama pledged to pass will be first to be signed by President Obama?
One hint may be contained in a brief presentation made by Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL), newly named as Obama's White House chief of staff, at an event sponsored by the National Journal in late August at the Democratic National Convention.
In that talk, Emanuel suggested that legislation that already has bipartisan support, the S-CHIP expansion bill and a bill to promote federal investment in stem cell research, both of which passed with large majorities in Congress but were vetoed by George W. Bush, could be among the first bills sent to Obama's desk for a signature.
Emanuel argued that S-CHIP could "lay the foundation" for major universal health care. In addition, he emphasized, "If you want to exemplify you had brought change, you'd pick places where the president has vetoed." The S-CHIP and stem cell bills are key examples.
(Emanuel didn't discuss Bush's vetoes of timetables for troop withdrawal from Iraq in this conversation.)
Certain Medicare reforms that would protect beneficiaries from high costs, again vetoed by Bush, would also be on the short list for early passage, Emanuel added.
Bipartisan support for these important measures make them easy early targets, Emanuel insisted. He further stated that any major reform like universal health care, which would be more difficult to pass, needs to start with bipartisan support.
Emanuel's philosophical predisposition for bipartisan support as a starting point for the legislative process may cause some health care reform advocates to pause, especially those who favor more advanced concepts like the Medicare-for-all proposal authored by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), which right now has little or no open bipartisan support. In any event, advocates of universal health care cannot sit this political battle out and should be looking to build the broadest support for such necessary reforms.
