Dems’ Lame-Duck Agenda Loses Steam

Receiving a huge whipping in a mid-term congressional election doesn’t exactly produce huge momentum for a party to advance an ambitious lame-duck agenda. And that’s the situation confronting Democrats now, The Hill reports.

Before the election, Senate Democrats mulled introducing up to 20 bills during the session between the election and Christmas. But after Democrats suffered what even President Barack Obama termed a “shellacking,” Democratic insiders say it will be difficult to pass anything more than a stop-gap spending bill and a temporary extension of the Bush-era tax cuts.

“I’m very pessimistic we’ll get much done,” says a labor official knowledgeable about lame-duck negotiations. “We’re focused on extending unemployment benefits and middle-class tax cuts. Republicans will try to put off everything ...”