Is GOP "Pledge" A Direct Descendant Of Tea Party "Contract?"

FOX News ^ | September 23, 2010 | Jake Gibson

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

STERLING, Va. -- House Republicans came to TART Lumber in suburban Washington, D.C. Thursday to unveil their "Pledge to America," a sweeping conservative agenda that calls for reigning in federal spending, permanently extending all of the Bush tax cuts and repealing President Obama's democratically passed health care reform law.

Republicans are hoping the document serves as a rallying call for conservatives to get out the vote this fall and propel them back into the majority in the House of Representatives. "The Pledge" also gives us a preview of the issues Republicans would push should they succeed in their efforts.

Although they won't admit to it publicly, "The Pledge To America" bears some striking similarities to a Tea Party backed document called "The Contract From America."

"There are a number of ideas in their document that come straight from ‘The Contract From America,' said Tea Party Society Member and the "Contract From America" organizer Ryan Hecker. "Their ‘Pledge to America' includes many of our Contract's planks, including the top-voted idea to ‘Protect the Constitution' by requiring every bill to cite Constitutional authority, rejection of Cap and Trade, the imposition of meaningful spending limits, repeal of government-run health care, and extension of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts."

When asked about any connection between the two documents during Thursdays event, House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, downplayed any link. "We listened to all Americans as we put this together," Boehner said. "Our members over the last four months have done thousands of town hall meetings, public forums, private meetings to listen to the American people and bring their ideas back to Washington."

However, after the event a senior member of the Republican House leadership told Fox News, "That document had a lot of influence on ours. No question about it."

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

GOP's "A Pledge to America"

Tea Party's "Contract from America"

[albie]

I agree with Erick Erickson on this one...

“The real pledge must come from the American people. We must pledge to continue challenging wayward Republicans in primaries who claim they are for limited government and then go to Washington to grow the government. The American people are tired of the status quo. They want government out of their lives. It is a bipartisan frustration.

This year, unlike years past, the American people are so engaged that no pledge, no contract, and no promises will motivate the people more than Barack Obama’s continued spending spree will motivate them. The GOP is succeeding this year by being the party of “No You Can’t” and should remain so”.

[TexasFreeper2009]

They should of kept it simple:

If elected, we will repeal Obamacare. Then when they won in a landslide, there would be no doubt about what their mandate was for. If Obama veto'd the repeal... then that just sets up the 2012 Republican nominee to run on the platform of: If elected, I will sign the repeal of Obamacare. At which point he would also win in a landslide.

[SMARTY]

The Tea Party movement is THE viable alternative to ‘politics as usual’ in America.

‘Politics as usual’ is a dead letter here and everyone knows it.

Whether a Conservative or a Liberal phenomenon (fortunately it is Conservative) the Tea Party movement in the natural next-step for Conservatives and all Americans who feel betrayed, defrauded and hustled.

NOW, the older and frankly, less reliable political organizations are so compromised and demonstrably extraneous that Tea Party opponents are struggling each in their own way, to either derail or pre-empt the force and momentum which has been channeled into the movememt.

Since the MSM long ago forfeited its birthright as the watchdog of American politics and demonstrates such wholesale and unethical bias, it does not command the academic rigor or credibility necessary to properly assess such a monumental political shift.

There they are… The most remarkable and significant change in American politics since the Revolution and the MSM is OUT OF THE LOOP!!!

The MSM has so sullied its own professional integrity that Americans NOW regard them as part of the problem. Tea Party movement has accomplished an end run on the traditional influence of the MSM.

This HAD to happen. The Tea Party will clear the slate and settle the score. We can take it from there!!