Tom Daschle, special interest stooge

The Wall Street Journal today lists a number of bills that have died thanks to Tom Daschle's obstructionism in the Senate. The editorial is here. It's subscriber only, so if the link doesn't work, sorry. If Opinion Journal posts the edit this weekend, I'll update.

Here are the bills that the WSJ cited as good legislation passed by the House of Representatives that have wallowed in the Senate and their dates of passage in the House:

Welfare Reform -- the most successful Clinton/Gingrich policy (Feb. 13, 2003)

Human Cloning Prohibition Act (Feb. 27, 2003)

Medical Malpractice -- a reform that would cap noneconomic damages and alleviate the medical crises in numerous states; Texas and Mississippi passed similar measures and insurance rates dropped in both states (March 3, 2003)

Bankruptcy Reform -- designed to cut bankruptcy abuse by limiting who can file (people with incomes > $72k prohibited) and limiting certain exemptions (March 17, 2003)

Pension Security Act -- intended to protect pensions and defined benefit plans in the wake of the Enron collapse (May 14, 2003)

Flag Burning and Desecration -- The Monk disagrees with this one (Jun 3, 2003)

Class Action Fairness Act (H.R. 1115)-- Here's the Bill's own description "An Act To amend the procedures that apply to consideration of interstate class actions to assure fairer outcomes for class members and defendants, to outlaw certain practices that provide inadequate settlements for class members, to assure that attorneys do not receive a disproportionate amount of settlements at the expense of class members, to provide for clearer and simpler information in class action settlement notices, to assure prompt consideration of interstate class actions, to amend title 28, United States Code, to allow the application of the principles of Federal diversity jurisdiction to interstate class actions, and for other purposes" (June 12, 2003)

Death Tax Repeal -- would eliminate estate taxes, a boon for small business owners and family farmers whose "wealth" is locked in to non-liquid assets (June 18, 2003)

Head Start Reform -- sets standards for Head Start program teachers, requires programs to ensure English-language proficiency (July 25, 2003)

Energy Bill (Nov. 21, 2003)

Marriage Penalty Repeal -- eliminates the "marriage penalty" in the Tax Code (April 28, 2004)

Make 10% Tax Bracket Permanent -- lowers the lowest income tax rate from 15% to 10% on a permanent basis, had 344 supporters in the House (May 13, 2004)

Hey South Dakotans: Vote Thune!