It's 1994 and Newt Gingrich along with dozens of other republican hopefuls unveil what they called 'The Contract With America'. A list of principles and ideals which they promised to support and push for if they were elected to serve. Whether you think of that 1st Tuesday in November 1994 as the 'Republican Revolution' or a national temper tantrum, there's little doubt that those candidates in those times giving the voters something to vote for had a dramatic impact on their success.
Nominees for public office this election season will be missing a great chance to capitalize on the sour political mood being handed to them by our Bleeding-Heart-Liberal-In-Chief and the rest of the Washington ruling elite if they don't put something before voters showing us what they would do if we sent them to Congress.
Here's my list of things I'd like to see them fight for. Some of them are new ideas. Some are concepts which have been around for years, but just haven't made it into the light of day. I could, and likely will craft a blog post addressing each of these, but here's a summary of them all.
Term Limits: When Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) came into office, gasoline was less than a dollar a gallon, James Bond and Rocky were busy defeating baby-eating communists, and the Dow breaking 3000 was big news. Max Baucus has been in the Senate since 1978, longer than many voters have been alive. It's time we give meaning to 'serving in Congress' and give those we send to Washington an expiration date on their Inside the Beltway Club membership card by limiting their service to 2 terms in the Senate and 6 terms in the House.
Simplification of the Tax Code: Whether it's a flat tax or an across the board consumption tax, our current tax system is a bloated, slimy, tentacled monstrosity that it makes criminals of every tax payer, punishes achievement, and has created an entire industry out of simple compliance. Tax returns should fit on a single side of a 3x5 index card, or even better, not exist at all. To blatantly rip off a line from a good, and wise, friend of mine, the Internal Revenue Service is only a service in the animal husbandry sense of the word.
Repeal Obamacare and Give us a Reasonable Health Care Solution: Obamacare is, and is going to be an unconstitutional nightmare. Just like Islamist terrorists wrap themselves in the Qur’an, Obamacare is pork and big government which pays lip service to suffering Americans. It will be a bloated and ineffective government bureaucracy which wasn't even read by the legislators who were only interested in a blank check drawn on the bank accounts of hard working Americans. Already we're seeing skyrocketing insurance premiums and FDA recommendation based on cost effectiveness. Welcome to Obamacare where, for the first time, we actually will know the exact dollar value of a human life. Our lawmakers need to just toss it out and give us something that addresses the reasons for prohibitively expensive medical treatment and doesn't put the burden for health care on the backs of American taxpayers.
Grow Jobs, Reduce Government: As the Government's own numbers show, trillion dollar government bureaucracies are ineffective at best at creating jobs, and the jobs they create seldom do anything to stoke the fires that drive the American economy. The numbers on jobs created by the ARRA are largely smoke and mirrors, but the money isn't. Even if the Spender-In-Chief is both honest and correct in the number of jobs saved by the 'Celebration of Pork Act', each job cost almost 200 thousand dollars of OUR money. The government is now the largest employer in the country and not only does it not actually produce anything, it does nothing to police its own waste and fraud. There's no reward for success nor punishment for failure, no workplace incentive to innovate or improve. The various government agencies draw directly on the resources of the rest of the country to keep themselves working, and I'm using 'work' in the loosest possible sense. The first, and in many cases only, priority of all government programs is justifying their own existence. As a result there is no incentive to actually solve the problems they are intended to address. All Washington need do to help America become great once more is get out of the way of those who have always made it that way; the American worker.
Balanced Budget Amendment: This one's simple. Neither American families nor American businesses can spend more than they take in without facing dire consequences. The American Government should be no different. Except in times of war or terrible natural disasters, the government should not be able to spend more than it takes in. This is our money the government is piling up in burning in grand celebratory fashion. It's time that Congress face the same fiscal accountability as the rest of the country.
Decriminalize Drugs. All of Them: The prohibition on marijuana, without argument the least deadly recreational substance, is rooted in racism, ignorance and a government bureaucracy desperate to justify its own existence after the end of prohibition. 11 years of legalized drugs in Portugal has shown dramatic decreases in opiate usage and a drop in drug-related deaths. American drug enforcement laws make criminals of otherwise good citizens and keep those trapped in illicit addictions in the shadows where feeding their addiction is easier than seeking treatment. Legalize, regulate, control and tax all drugs. The only valid arguments against drug legalization is that it will put thousands of lawyers out of work and cause law enforcement professionals to pursue actual criminals.
Make Congress Subject to Its Own Laws: Our current ruling class elite doesn't think twice about cramming massive, burdensome legislation down our throats because they themselves are exempt from the laws they pass. This is just insanity. If our ruling elite had to subject themselves to the same confiscatory and oppressive legislation as the rest of the nation, they would certainly think twice before ramming something through Congress. If nothing else they'd at least take the time to read what they vote on.
Enumerated Powers Act: The authority and powers granted to Congress are clearly defined and enumerated by the Constitution. Our leaders, for lack of a better word, in congress often times don't know, or don't care whether or not the laws they pass even fall within the power granted to them by We The People. Every law passed by Congress should define the exact Constitutional authority by which our legislators act.
Immigration Reform: America is a country built by immigrants, but we as a nation have a responsibility to protect our own. The current immigration process is a convoluted mess, which costs thousands of dollars, takes years of effort, and is so choked with legalistic lawyer-speak that I have a hard time blaming anyone who finds sneaking into the country a much easier, cheaper, and expeditious course to follow than proper immigration. We need to seal the borders and have better control over who comes waltzing in. Employers should have to require proof of legal citizenship from those they hire. The path to becoming a citizen should be clear, easy to follow, and not require a lawyer and thousands of dollars to navigate.
There they are. I'd sign on that Contract with America in a heartbeat.
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