Posted on 05/06/2006 4:15:33 AM PDT by Born Conservative
Well, that's exactly what Indiana Representative Mike Pence and 100 fellow House Republicans are out to answer -- how to make the Republican Party the home of constitutionality and conservatism once again.
That's not to say there's no conservatism in the GOP. As the titular head of the Republican Party, President George W. Bush has distinguished himself as a conservative when it comes to foreign policy and -- all importantly -- in restoring the judicial branch to its proper constitutional role through the appointment of constructionist-minded judges to federal benches. That said, President Bush has failed dismally when it comes to restoring, or even holding, government to its proper constitutionally limited role.
At present, Republicans control the executive and legislative branches of government, yet the size and regulatory role of the central government has grown unabated since President Bush took office. Of course, our nation's vigorous response to the 9/11 attacks and our pre-emptive military response to Jihadis in the Middle East and elsewhere are responsible for some of that growth, but those necessary -- and we might add, constitutionally mandated -- expenditures have not been offset by spending cuts to domestic programs as Mr. Bush once promised would happen.
Today, the federal government spends $2.47 trillion -- that's 2,470 billions of dollars -- each year. Adjusted for inflation, that's 50 percent larger than the big-government Clinton-era budgets of only a decade ago, about which Republicans constantly complained. Of that, only 21 cents of every taxpayer dollar goes to national defense and homeland security. By contrast, 54 cents goes to entitlements like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and 8 cents goes to servicing the federal debt.
Meanwhile, the federal deficit will grow another $423 billion this year, raising the national debt to $8.28 trillion! While we're not exactly "The sky is falling!" deficit hawks, it's worth noting that big budgets and big deficits tighten the money supply, increasing the costs of investment and slowing economic growth and prosperity.
Enter the Republican Study Committee.
Founded in 1973 by Rep. Phil Crane to reinvigorate the GOP as the party of constitutional constructivism and social conservatism, the RSC became the premier mobilizing agent for House conservatives, dedicated to "a limited and Constitutional role for the federal government, a strong national defense, the protection of individual and property rights, and the preservation of traditional family values."
In 2005, Rep. Mike Pence became the Committee's chairman for the 109th Congress. He and his fellow conservatives have rallied around principles outlined in a speech last fall, "Another Time for Choosing," picking up the central theme of Ronald Reagan's famous 1964 speech "A Time for Choosing".
Today, under Pence's leadership, the RSC is the originator of the Contract with America: Renewed, created by Representatives Pence and Jeb Hensarling, with the aim of reviving the legislative agenda of Newt Gingrich's original 1994 Contract with America. It was that agenda, readers will recall, that catapulted Republicans into control of Congress for the first time in over 40 years.
Under the FY 2007 Contract with America: Renewed budget proposal, overall spending would be reduced by more than $700 billion and a balanced federal budget realized by 2011. The RSC proposal would make real reductions in discretionary spending (without silly and unconstitutional inventions like a "line-item veto"), rein in entitlement spending and undergird the U.S. economy with sound, pro-growth tax policy. Under the RSC plan, more than 150 other federal programs would be eliminated outright. Foreign aid -- which should serve as a tool for U.S. security and interests abroad, but often falls prey to special interests -- would be cut by $31 billion over five years. The ignominious six-year Highway Bill, pork-laden with roads and bridges to nowhere, would be repealed. Medicare, whose trustees this week announced will go broke in 2018, would be limited to a more sustainable growth of 5.4 percent annually -- a necessary first step in getting the federal government out of the entitlement business altogether.
As was the case in 1994, today's Contract isn't just about a return to fiscal conservatism; it includes a strong focus on social conservatism as well. Take, for instance, the Contract's objectives with respect to the three sacred cows of taxpayer-funded social liberalism: The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts -- not reduction, elimination.
And that's just the beginning.
In 1994, when the "Gingrich Revolution" launched the original Contract, Democrats controlled both Houses of Congress, and the nation was in the grip of the Clinton presidency. The Contract nationalized the election around its agenda. It proved a monumental success in capturing both Houses for the GOP, promoting increased trade, reforming welfare and containing the advance of big-government entitlement schemes under the Clinton regime.
Now, 12 years later, with Republican control of the Senate and the Presidency, true conservatism is again set for takeoff -- so what's keeping this would-be juggernaut on the launch pad?
Democrats? No, not really. In a word, it's the leadership of the Republican Party.
Indeed, DC scuttlebutt says that Pence was told his Contract: Renewed would be DOA when it hit the House floor. Sadly, the party in control is all too vulnerable to Lord Acton's famous maxim ("Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."), using earmarks, pork-barreling and other budgetary quid pro quos to stay in power. As evidence, the Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) 2006 Congressional Pig Book identifies 9,963 pork projects in 11 appropriation bills, totaling $29 billion for FY 2006 alone. Since 2003, says CAGW, congressional pork has increased by a staggering 29 percent.
Crusading reformers while out of power, the GOP in power seems seduced by Washington's tax-and-spend status quo. To make us feel better about it, it's now called "compassionate conservatism" -- an agenda thoroughly embodied in President Bush's 2005 Nanny State of the Union.
Where's the Republican leadership? It's a mixed bag. In the Senate, Majority Leader Bill Frist has a 92 percent overall approval rating by the American Conservative Union (ACU). Assistant Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has a 96 percent ACU rating. Both have 95 percent ratings from Americans for Tax Reform (ATR). In the House, where members are more responsive to their constituents, Speaker Dennis Hastert has a 100 percent ACU rating, as does the new Majority Leader, John Boehner. The ACU gives House Whip Roy Blunt a 96. Their ATR ratings are 100, 100 and 95, respectively. That's the good news.
But when it comes to government waste the story takes a different turn. CAGW gives Frist and McConnell a 66 and 69, respectively, while in the House, Hastert, Boehner and Blunt line up with scores of 50, 75 and 65. That's an average score of 65 -- an "F" -- for the Republican congressional leadership. With government waste out of control even among the otherwise moderate-conservative leadership, and no leadership on fiscal conservatism coming from the White House, the RSC agenda faces a tough, maybe insurmountable, hill to climb.
In Rep. Pence's words during the latest round of budget negotiations, "We must not let this moment pass. The American people long for Congress to reaffirm our commitment to fiscal discipline and reform and House conservatives are ready to stand with our leadership to do just that."
Both major parties are controlled by big government supporters advocating foreign entanglements through military action and trade deals.
If a voter wants a conservative American government, always vote for gridlock.
"Moderates are those who think for themselves, rather than have to be told how to think."
No, moderates are confused as to what to think. Liberals just belong in an insane asylum, so few of their nostrums have ever worked. Conservatives are the only rational ones (as long as they learn from their errors)
Good grief, CB. What is there to be afraid of? Sheesh. If my opinion of conservatives and conservatism was based entirely on what I read on FR I would be led to believe that 90% of what conservatives stands for is trashing 'Rats and the MSM.
If I'm afraid I'm much more afraid of "RINO's" than I am of 'Rats. At least with a 'Rat you know what you're getting. It's the old adage: "the devil I know ..."
Unfortunately, they never do. One would think they would run out of feet to shoot.
Muleteam1
ROFLOL!!!
>>Conservatives are the only rational ones (as long as they learn from their errors)<<
>Unfortunately, they never do. One would think they would run out of feet to shoot.<
There is an "unthinking" conservative, who does thing by rote, who I find disturbing as well. There may only be 20% of the population that really knows what is going on, and can explain it to anyone else.
I know EXACTLY how you feel. I'm almost 60, I voted R for 35 years and watched America slip and slide into the sad state we are in today because of RINO's and a dysfunctional RNC. I feel stupid that I didn't start supporting a third party when I was your age.
Right now we have these free trade agreements, GATT, NAFTA, & CAFTA. What are they? They are sovereignty destructive tools designed by the CFR and the UN that have removed 90% of our heavy manufacturing from CONUS and redistributed the plants around the world into third world countries that benefit only international EU companies. I have watched thousands of American companies smoothly sold to foreign ownerships with the jobs outsourced from our soil.
The last thing Bush wants is secure borders because of the last trade agreement which opens the entire continent to free trade. The Agenda 21 Plan is about balancing the population across the entire continent and balancing national economies. There isn't a word in their about US national sovereignty.
I have watched our once secure ports and shipping industries decimated by the Bush1 and Bush2 administrations. The Chinese have more control over what is shipped to America than the American citizens do.
The national deficit is over 8 TRILLION dollars, the price of transportation has been steadily rising at the hands of sleazy bastards who think a dollar is more important than national security. Do you realize how shaky our entire airline industry is today because of rising fuel costs?
Yet we have billions of gallons of oil under our own topsoil that this administration is wimping along saying they want to drill for. Like hell they do. When was the last refinery built on American soil? Thirty years ago or longer? Strengthening American industry is not what this administration is working for. They are working for the exact opposite!
Bringing in 30 million people with an average IQ score of 85 is not what one does to build strong nations. Bringing in people who have no desire to assimilate, just steal and plunder from the citizens isn't what the Presidential oath is about.
It is time that you do some real deep thinking about helping to design and build a strong third party that uses our Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution as the base documents instead of the Communist Manifesto.
[. . .Communism is not the absence of capitalism, it is state capitalism where the elite, those who run the state, are the only capitalists and the rest of the people are the capital, i.e. slaves. Under our system, I have a chance to be a capitalist by having a small business and running it. Under theirs, they run me. Communism is nothing more than a gigantic state-run slave plantation.]
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
Enough, you are intelligent, do your own clear minded research and you'll see we are being dragged down by the two political parties we now have.
Could be but I suspect there is there's an even larger percentage of Americans who just think they know what's going on and include foot-shooting as part of their plan to correct things.
Muleteam1
Well said.
John Mclaim is the Ross Perot of 2008...
Sure.. I remember when the Reps were considered just the party of the rich... whose only interest was to make money, and nothing else. Well, it may have been at one time, but they did change. As the Rats became the party of perversion, many of us move to other one, where our values are respected (if not re veered by everyone). And just as the Rats move more left every day (homosexuality becoming the main engine for this change), we on this side accentuate our values as well as we are forced to defend them. As the LSM (former M :) moves to the left, we see a new media, our media, flourishing as well as they reflect our views.
What I am saying you ask? I don't know really - LOL - but I am saying "something," I am sure... hmmm.. :)
Oh yeah, it came to me: Winning, sometimes is not winning... and losing, may lead to winning So, I would not be afraid if we lost seats or a house, or the presidency.. because I know that would makes even hungrier and more determined to elect the right people next time around. And... politicians will FEAR US even if the don't respect us, because they will realize that "this is a new ball-game." New rules are to be followed.
McCain won't get half-way through the primaries before he drops out. That is if he runs at all. He's toast the republican base will not stand for this liberal getting the nomination.
Odd link.
It would look like a small minority party from the authoritarian fringe that is out of office, has no hope of attaining power and has little or no authority to do anything whatsoever but complain..
Well done! BUMP
LOL! McCain is not a liberal. Not even close.
He is plainly nuts....His personality is defective!
I find it amusing that self described true conservatives label anyone who is the slightest bit socially moderate as a general liberal without hesitation and any explanations.
This is why this type of conservative causes so much grief within the party. This is why the RNC only pays lip service to this group and always has.
Always will.....
DUBAI CO. TAKES OVER 9 US MILITARY FACILITIES
Do we have the Progressive Republicans in office today? These buggers are more than just your average Quislings!
Closed minds have no room for anything, including thinking for themselves.
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