Beat me up on this .

[blues90]

I do realize stem cell research is an important issue .

What about the poor ?

I understand min wage is an important issue

What about the homeless ?

I realize all the issues in the first 100 hours are important


What about those who are lost and forsaken whether in the wars or their lives washed away by Katrina or those who were outsourced . What about them ? Where do they rate in todays society ?

[WI_DEM]

1. there are many important issues out there

that have been ignored for years, and not only by republicans.

[porphyrian]

2. They're all important to me, and to most of us here.

Some issues are simply easier to address first. That doesn't mean the others are any less important.

[SmokingJacket]

3. Well, they're going with the stuff with the most popular support.

Easy issues to grasp with easy, simple fixes, and stuff that a clear majority of people support.

Other stuff that might be even more important but more complicated and nuanced might take a while... but I think (hope) they'll move on the them later...

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

6. Right, the "100 hours" is to get the low-hanging fruit ...

... the stuff that's pretty much a no-brainer for liberals. (well, except for the 9/11 commission stuff, which makes my head hurt).

I'm still waiting for them to "do" something about Iraq, besides just "talk". Identity cards and minimum wage is not what got the Democrats the majority. It's the war.

[Lex]

4. The stem cell issue may well have put the Dems over the top

in the Senate. It was a big issue in the Missouri Senate race, and in other tight states.

That might have something to do with its priority, but still I believe all the issues you mentioned will be dealt with pretty quickly by the Democrats.

At least the Repukes aren't blathering on about flag burning and crap like that.

[Deep13]

5. It's a lot easier to cut a check than it is to solve...

...all of societies problems. Most of those will require more than a 100 hours to solve if they can be solved at all. Further most of that stuff cannot be solved by the Feds alone.

[crispini]

7. They picked the easy ones first.

They're getting the low-hanging fruit, the ones that absolutely everyone can agree on. It's quite sensible. The problem of the poor and the homeless -- it's a lot more complicated, and hard to get a consensus even among Democrats.

[uppityperson]

8. There is a whole lot to do and there is a need to just start somewhere. Real question is...

will they not end before addressing all those issues?

[Az]

9. Not everything can happen all at once

And order in which they are dealt with does not indicate the importance of the matter. Politics creates strange eddies and currents. Sometimes you hold off on an important issue until you generate sufficient political capital to enable it. Remember there are 49 senators out there that would love to stop the things we are doing. We need to coax them into agreeing on the important bits and sometimes some politics needs to pave the way for such things.