GOP Legislative Agenda for 2010
Rank-and-file House Republicans get their first glimpse at the GOP legislative agenda tonight, one day before the leadership team showcases the plan during a press conference and small business roundtable at a lumber warehouse in suburban Virginia.
The game plan is culled from the Republicans' "America Speaking Out" initiative, which solicited the online input of Americans for two months earlier in the year.
The GOP plan is divided into five, distinct policy areas: 1) the economy, 2) government spending, 3) health care, 4) government reform and 5) national security.
FOX was granted the opportunity to view the document ahead of its scheduled release.
The highlights in the economic area include:
- A move to "permanently stop all job-killing tax hikes."
- A plan to award small businesses a tax reduction of 20 percent of business income.
- A reining-in of government "red tape."
- A repeal of "job-killing business mandates." This specifically refers to a provision in the health care law that requires businesses to report to the IRS any transaction over $600. Small businesses argue the requirement is cumbersome.
The highlights in the government spending area include:
- An immediate reduction in all federal spending and a cancellation of all unspent stimulus money.- A cut in government spending to pre-stimulus and "bailout" levels.
- The imposition of a "hard cap" on discretionary spending, meaning the government can't go above a certain level.
- A request to hold weekly votes on spending cuts.
- "End TARP once and for all." That's a reference to the Troubled Asset Relief Program [1], which Congress approved to assist banks and financial institutions with liquidity in the fall of 2008.
- Demand a net hiring freeze of all "non-security" federal workers.
The highlights in the health care area include:
- A move to "repeal and replace" the health care reform law and instead approve medical liability reform legislation.
- A call to make the "Hyde Amendment" permanent. The Hyde Amendment is named after the late-Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL). Congress reauthorizes the Hyde Amendment every year. It builds a firewall that ensures that federal dollars are not used for abortion services.
The highlights in the government reform area include:
- A requirement that all bills lay over for 72 hours in the House before being voted on.
- The mandate that all lawmakers writing legislation must include a clause in the measure demonstrating that the bill would be "Constitutional" if enacted.
- An effort to prevent non-related bills from being packaged together.
The highlights in the national security area include:
- A requirement that all troop funding bills be "clean." In other words, that legislation must be free of any extraneous issues.
- The demand that terrorism suspects be kept off U.S. soil.
- A call to impose sanctions against Iran [2] unless certain security conditions are not met.
Some have likened this document to the "Contract With America" that Republicans wheeled-out on the steps of the Capitol in September, 1994 before the midterm elections. Republicans won 54 seats that year and secured control of the House for the first time since the 1950s.
The Contract With America was a list of ten specific bills that the GOP promised to pass in the first 100 days if they won control of the House.
The House eventually okayed all Contract With America items. But most of the 10 died in the Senate.
Democrats responded to the plan almost immediately - and with fervor.
"Congressional Republicans are pledging to ship jobs overseas; blow a $700 billion hole in the deficit to give tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires; turn Social Security [3] from a guaranteed benefit into a guaranteed gamble; once again, subject American families to the recklessness of Wall Street; and take away patients' rights," a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi [4] said in an email, adding Republicans will race back from the lumber yard in suburban Virginia to vote against a bill Democrats say that very lumber yard needs to get help.
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I won't be quite as harsh on the GOP's magnum opus as RedState's Erick Erickson, who calls it "the worst thing to come out of Washington since George McClellan."
Erick must have blocked out DC's distinguished Mayor Marion Berry.
But his point -- that the GOP's effort is mostly "dreck" -- is valid. Washington's so freaking broken that the usual platitudes and rhetoric can't and won't suffice.
21 pages? How about starting with two words: THE CONSTITUTION?
To be sure, the Constitution is paid lip service in the GOP's pledge. And a few (unfortunately, too few) stats are powerful. For example: did you know that there are 2,050 federal assistance programs?
And consider this sentence, notwithstanding the "sic":
Despite having the largest Democratic majority since 1993, the current Congress marked the first time in the history [sic] that not a single spending bill was considered under an 'open' amendment process.
But there's also plenty of fluff, with anecdotes and quotes and lengthy paragraphs that morph into meaningless mush.
Consider the summary of the GOP pledge:
• We will fight to ensure transparency and accountability in Congress and throughout government. [Platitude]
• We will continue to fight the growth of government and oppose new stimulus spending that only puts our nation further in debt. [Platitude]
• We will fight efforts to fund the costly new health care law. [Feh]
• We will fight to increase access to domestic energy sources and oppose attempts to impose a national “cap and trade” energy tax. [Okay, barely]
• We will fight for the rights of workers and oppose “card check” schemes that put union bosses before individuals’ right to a secret ballot. [Okay, barely]
• We will fight efforts to use a national crisis for political gain. [I have no idea what this means]
Reps. Boehner, Cantor, Ryan and other members of the GOP: you could have come to me for the one-page pledge. It would read as follows:
The GOP Pledge to America
We pledge that every action we take will be gauged by the answer to a single question: Does it show fidelity to the Constitution, our highest law?
With that as our guide, we solemnly pledge the following as our first actions:
• We will repeal the Democrat health care bill and, if vetoed by the President, will de-fund every aspect of that bill until such time as the American people have input into a sensible health care reform process.
• We will slash the size of the federal government bureaucracies (Commerce, Education, Energy, the EPA, Labor, etc.) by 20% in 2011 with a goal of reducing each by 50% over the next three years, thereby saving hundreds of billions of dollars.
• We will secure the border with physical fencing suitable to repel drug smugglers, human smugglers, and terrorists, while encouraging legal immigration and enforcement of the law.
• We will confront the entitlement crisis -- Social Security and Medicare -- by preserving benefits for those who depend upon them and moving to privatized options for younger workers. Anything less condemns future generations to mountains of debt and economic catastrophe.
• We will strengthen our armed forces, space and missile defense programs to retain our unparalleled superpower status.
• We will begin the process of paying down our debts, spending within our means every year.
• We will ban public sector unions, which exist solely to wage war against the taxpayers who fund their operations.Put simply: we intend to adhere to a strict interpretation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Faith, Family, and the Founding. That is our creed.
And for your support and with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
It really is just that simple.
We are fighting to prevent the destruction of the American way -- and the remedy is simple. It's been right in front of our faces the whole time.
Somewhere, James Madison and John Adams are looking down on us with expectant gleams in their eyes.
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