Public back Democratic Agenda.

As Bush embraces the Democrat plans to oppose "earmarks" and heralds in a new wave of bipartisan politics in Washington, he has also warned that he will veto any proposals that are "simply political statements". By this I can only assume that he means stem cell research and a host of other issues, such as Iraq and how to deal with pharmaceutical companies, on which he and the Democrats are diametrically opposed.

However, as is to be expected, Bush's new found love of bipartisan politics is actually an attempt to prevent the Democrats from putting forward policies that the public are in agreement with.

CNN recently polled the public on a range of issues, most of which Bush would no doubt see as "simply political statements", and it turns out the public are overwhelmingly in favour of many of the issues that Bush opposes. I've highlighted only a few, but if you click the title you can see the whole poll.

Favor Oppose No opinion

Allowing the government to negotiate
with drug companies to attempt to
lower the price of prescription drugs
for some senior citizens

87% 12% 1%

Raising the minimum wage

85% 14% 1%

Cutting interest rates on federal loans
to college students

84% 15% 1%

Creating an independent panel to oversee
ethics in Congress

79% 19% 2%

Making significant changes
in U.S. policy in Iraq

77% 20% 3%

Reducing the amount of influence lobbyists
have in congressional decisions

75% 21% 4%

Funding embryonic stem cell research

62% 32% 6%

So, when Bush calls for bipartisan politics, what he is really doing is asking that his prejudices be respected and that the wishes of the wider electorate be ignored.

Click title for CNN poll.

tag: Bush, Bipartisan politics, CNN poll, democratic agenda