This past year, Republicans in Congress made a mockery of the democratic process and the intelligence of the American people. They followed the Administration's lead in ignoring important issues like poverty, health care, social security and education. Instead, they focused on special favors for wealthy corporate interests and pursued divisive policies for political gain while abusing the House procedures meant to ensure fair debate.

Republican leaders spent so much time ignoring their Congressional duties they were forced to rush a several thousand page spending bill through at the end of the year just to keep the country running. With only a few hours to review the massive bill, controversial provisions were snuck in, provisions that violated the privacy rights of taxpayers everywhere. Luckily, Democrats caught the 'error' and were able to reverse it.

We hope that Republicans are able to remember middle-class Americans in their 2005 plans. To ensure this, we would like to suggest a few New Year resolutions for them to keep in mind while they pursue their disingenuous agenda which protects multinational corporations that outsource American jobs and cuts taxes for millionaires at the expense of working families.

Proposed Republican Resolutions for the New Year

We are not professional arm wrestlers and thus we will not hold votes open for 3 hours for the sole purpose of twisting arms to get our way.

We will lead by example and not change our own ethics rules to protect the Leader of our Caucus, no matter how many times they are indicted or rebuked by the Ethics Committee.

We will not allow the chairman of a key committee to negotiate a private deal with the pharmaceutical industry while considering legislation that benefits that industry.

We will respect House rules that require three days before legislation that has been through a committee is voted on.

We will admit that incompetence is not cool: not in our Defense Secretary, not when engaging in war, and not in our fiscal policies.

We will agree that middle-class families are bearing the burden of economic mismanagement.

We will engage in diplomatic efforts with countries that pose a real threat to our country and will always present sound intelligence to the American people before using military force.

We will agree that money does not grow on trees and contrary to popular belief, there is no prize for running record surpluses into record deficits.

We will remember that children are our future. Slashing Pell Grants and partially funding the No Child Left Behind Act does not demonstrate a commitment to our future.

We will leave no soldier or veteran behind in our budget.

We will not dismantle the environmental protections that keep our air clean and preserve our public lands and then name the initiatives "Clear Skies" and "Healthy Forests."

If these common sense resolutions are adopted and kept, perhaps 2005 will be a better year for the American people and the Representatives in Congress who actually want to get things done. Democrats cross their fingers in hope that Republicans are not holding theirs behind their back.