Posted on 09/23/2010 8:06:17 AM PDT by Palter
The papers are all atwitter on Thursday (WSJ, NYT, WaPo) with news of a new proposal by House Republicans to be unveiled formally Thursday morning.
The proposal, titled “A Pledge to America,” lays out, much as House Republicans did back in 1994 with their “Contract With America,” a blueprint for action going forward. Among the ideas: shrink the size of government, repeal the health care act passed in March, and cut a variety of types of taxes.
We here are a Law Blog. So we’re not going to spend much time on the actual proposal; we’ll leave that to the Beltway partisans and policy wonks.
But one section of “The Pledge” intrigued us: specifically, a “pledge” to “adhere to the Constitution,” found on page 18 of the document. It reads:
Adhere To The Constitution: For too long, Congress has ignored the proper limits imposed by the Constitution on the federal government. Further, it has too often drafted unclear and muddled laws, leaving to an unelected judiciary the power to interpret what the law means and by what authority the law stands. This lack of respect for the clear Constitutional limits and authorities has allowed Congress to create ineffective and costly programs that add to the massive deficit year after year. We will require each bill moving through Congress to include a clause citing the specific constitutional authority upon which the bill is justified.
It’s an interesting thought, and on the one hand, we appreciate a nod to the Great Document (given the amount of time we spend writing about it on these pages).
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...
Constitutional grounds, etc. Will be interesting if they make this a promise and what they justify as legislation in the future.
I’m still trying to figure out how they justify the GM BUYOUT.
On that premise alone, it should eliminate 3/4 of the Federal government (save for Defense and the White House Staff).
They??? The Republicans didn't buyout GM, Obama did. His justification? He won.
I propose cutting the federal budget 12.5 pct over the next four years. Any idiot even on this forum could cut 6.25 pct just in waste then an across the board cut of 6.25 pct of every bureau or agency should get the job done. We can revisit it again in 4 years when we have cut to size of govt in half. Thinking American’s are waiting for such bold and common sense moves because they know it is necessary for our future.
A real yawner. The Contract With America was a novel idea but IIRC they only actually passed one component (welfare reform) and reneged big time on another (term limits). In the end the turned into Democratic Party Lite and, amazingly enough, gave the Dems the chance to run as the party of fiscal conservatism. When they do this I think of Charlie Brown and a football.
There was something similar a few years back called the “enumerated powers act” which required every bill to include which of the enumerated powers of Congress authorized them to pass the bill.
I wrote to my [rat] Congressman to support it (I knew he wouldn’t), and he wrote back that the Supreme Court has already ruled that the commerce clause gives Congress the power to pass any law.
Now, whose fault was it that they turned into “Dem Light”?
Could that be OUR fault, that we had our guys in power and didn’t hold their feet to the fire?
I wonder what it is they pledge to when they take the oath for their office /s
Now they have to reassure us that they will start following the Constitution which means they are openly admitting they have ignored it. They should all be run out on a rail.
Because Obama&Co. said it was to big to fail.
TARP bailed out GM, etc. and went more extreme from there.
Because you too busy looking for something to bitch about to actually take the time and go read the document in question.
Good point.
I hope it’s not like the Contract of 1994. That was a dead letter only 2 years later.
The “end” had better be CUTTING SPENDING dramatically or else the GOP is dead.
We do not need any more laws or acts. None zero zip. We only need to begin repealing all the crap they have done in the last 50 years and firing government employee pests.
My mother had a saying: paper never refuses ink. They can write whatever they want, just like they did with the CWA. Believe the results when you see them.
Seven of the nine contract items were passed by the House of Representatives.
Thanks for the ping.
Well, this is something they can be doing NOW- stand up on the floor and ask the bill sponsor what, exactly, in the Constitution authorizes this?
It’s nice they put it in their pledge, it’s a fine idea, it will provide a focus like the Contract With America did and that might be a good thing.
But why wait, why not do it now, and why haven’t they?
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