With midterm elections coming up, there are more parties to care about than the ones on Friday night.

New polls show that the Democrats are taking a lead over the Republicans in the 2006 congressional elections, potentially giving them control of one or both of the houses in congress. Republicans have controlled Capitol Hill since 1994, with a slight break in control of the Senate in 2001. For the last six years, they’ve had a Republican president, so the GOP has essentially held the reins of power in Washington. The shift to the left would have far-reaching consequences, and not just for your fantasy congress league (seriously, it’s a real thing).

The Dems have a plan they’re calling “A New Direction For America,” with the all-too-niftily-named “Six for ‘06” talking points. If enacted, these have the potential to impact the lives of all Americans, even yours! I’ll look at three of these points this week and what they mean to you, with more coming next week.

Retirement Security: It’s never too early to start planning your future, right? Two years ago, Bush made it a goal for his second term to overhaul Social Security and he still hopes to carry it through. Under the Bush plan, workers would have the option of putting retirement benefits in individual accounts which could be used for investment (right now, money from workers’ paychecks go to pay the benefits for people currently retired). Democrats have vowed to stop this plan and any similar to it.

The Bush plan would decrease the supply of money used to pay for the benefits of people retired today and may lead to benefit cuts for everyone under a certain age (that means us). On the other hand, it would give future workers (that’s us again) more control over their own social security money, allowing them to possibly make the money in their individual accounts grow through smart investing.

Either way, though, the retirement system is sure to be a contentious issue in the next two years. Even though you probably care more about saving to buy more Ramen than about saving for retirement, the fact remains that you’ll have to start saving for retirement soon, and the balance of power in Washington will affect how you do it.

Health Care: Democrats plan to overhaul the Medicare prescription drug program, lowering drug prices and reducing the power of drug companies. Meanwhile, the recently-enacted Bush plan gives seniors more independence in choosing their plan and some experts estimate it saves an average $1,100 per month.

Again, it may appear that you won’t care about this until far into the future, but it’s not so. This plan would drop family health insurance costs, which have been rising and cutting into personal spending. How many times have we heard politicians drop that line about seniors choosing between health care and paying the rent (parodied perfectly by SNL in their mock 2000 presidential debate). Those costs end up affecting those below the seniors, and if drug costs continue to rise, you may be paying the bills for your parents. No matter which way you look at the issue, you’ll be paying for prescription drugs sooner than you think, so this issue is bound to impact your pocketbook.

College Access: Remember last summer when your mom got mad at you because she got Northwestern’s tuition bill and made you skip dinner every other day to even out the costs? No? Just me? Well, you at least must remember that sticker shock when you signed over that first tuition check. College costs keep rising across the nation, even faster than the interest rate!

Dems are planning to reduce the federal student loan interest rate to make college more affordable, in addition to making tuition tax-deductible and expanding Pell Grants. In short, the plan would make college more affordable (only an arm instead of an arm and a leg). Obviously, this would have a huge effect on your life, since families would have more money to spend and more students would have the ability to take out loans. It would also change the demographics of colleges across the nation: poorer students would have even more opportunities to attend private universities such as Northwestern.

Coming next week: Judicial nominees, minimum wage and lower gas prices!
For updates on the election standings, see Slate’s election scorecard.