Posted on 04/01/2022 7:57:24 PM PDT by conservative98
As former Vice President Mike Pence positions himself for a possible presidential race, he is setting a great example of substance of the sort that the public should demand from all White House aspirants.
On Thursday, Pence’s Advancing American Freedom organization launched a “Freedom Agenda” featuring what, by modern standards, is a remarkable amount of depth and specificity. Readers may also be struck by how much its tone sounds Reaganesque, more focused on what the group (and thus Pence) is for than what it opposes.
The agenda is divided into three sections: American culture, American opportunity, and American leadership. Each section is further divided into multiple subsections, each of which (usually) contains multiple specific policy prescriptions.
For example, one of 10 (!) subsections under the “American Opportunity” rubric is this: “Give American families the opportunity to achieve the American dream by having the freedom to pursue the best education options for their children.” That subsection, in turn, features four bullet points, one of which is further subdivided into three subpoints.
Thus we learn, among other things, that Pence (or his organization) will “support universal school choice. Fund education scholarship accounts which parents and children can use for the school of their choice and/or accredited and supplemental learning outside of the classroom.” And students should be allowed to “attend the public school of their choice and [be] provid[ed with] credit for learning outside of the classroom.” And for vocational education and training, among several ideas, Pence says that “public resources that target workforce development should be made more flexible by creating relocation vouchers so Americans can easily relocate to places of greater opportunity.”
Now I’ve never heard of a relocation voucher before, but it sounds like a terrific idea. And this idea, like many in the Freedom Agenda, calls to mind the creative, can-do approach of the late Republican vice presidential nominee Jack Kemp. Kemp was famous for his crusading determination to leverage a nimble and streamlined government, without bureaucratic straitjackets and complicated mandates, to facilitate opportunities for people from all walks of life. Pence, like Kemp, is big on encouraging private initiative rather than creating public dependency.
Most conservatives will applaud just about the entire agenda. Here, Pence calls for making the Trump/Pence tax cuts permanent rather than expiring in 2025. There, he calls for “drastically” streamlining the federal permitting process so that large infrastructure projects can be completed far more quickly. Elsewhere, he wants to “pass a law to require the elimination of at least two regulations for every new federal regulation.”
The agenda is bullish on domestic energy production, eager to modernize patenting to promote entrepreneurship and fight intellectual property theft, supportive of expanded health savings accounts, and specific about procedural changes needed to get federal spending under control.
Pence embraces cultural issues, too, with paeans to religious liberty, tough sentencing for violent criminals, and strict border controls, along with opposition to tommyrot such as critical race theory, speech codes, and transgender participation in women’s sports.
Finally, the “American Leadership” section opposes wokeness in the military, demands a Navy buildup back to 350 ships, and outlines a veritable cornucopia of ways to counter the malignant designs of China, Russia, and Iran.
In 21 years in elective office and more than a decade before that in other forms of public engagement with public policy, Pence has always been forthright and prescriptive about his beliefs. To borrow a phrase from columnist George Will from 34 years ago, Pence’s "substance-to-blather ratio" always has been remarkably high and admirable. His Freedom Agenda makes him the very model of a man serious about his public duty.
Who the f*** cares
Cruz/Fiorina
LOL!
They can make him the nominee, but the only way Pence would win is to get the Democrats to fabricate ballots for him like they did for Biden. People are no longer willing to hold their nose and vote for the lesser of two evils. They realize that after the election is over, you're still stuck with evil.
Because he received a big payoff to tube the rightful President. And, now he has to earn the dollars he was given. He was paid so he could buy that big house, so now he must pay. In his case, he has to perform like he is going to run.
I think the author wrote this given his elite GOPe creds:
Quin Hillyer is a senior commentary writer and editor for the Washington Examiner. He is also a contributing editor for National Review Online and is a former executive editor for the American Spectator. He has served in senior roles for the Washington Times, the Mobile Register, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and Gambit New Orleans Weekly and has been published in almost every major newspaper in the nation. A New Orleans native and cum laude graduate of Georgetown University, he is the author of the Mad Jones trilogy of satirical novels. He lives in Mobile, Alabama.
Does pens know he is on a head on collision course with Trump ? Or is he counting on the possibility Trump won’t run or get disqualified somehow ?
Because he's an arrogant a-hole, who figures people voted for him for Congress, and for Governor, and actually thinks people would vote for him for President. Maybe before January 6th, but not afterwards.
Pence will suffer the same fate as Jeb Bush.
Fool me once, shame on you…
He might run against Trump. If so then Trump gets to trash his Vice President while the dems laugh. Popcorn city.
Benedict Arnold spent the rest of his life living in England among people who would never trust him. Pence's future is no different.
I hold him as responsible as Dominion for the mess we are in.
Maybe President Trump will have to tell Mikey to stop using his name, like he did the RNC for their fundraising efforts.
The bias and preference here for Pence by Quin is palpable. “A great example of substance....a remarkable amount of depth and specificity....the very model of a man serious about his public duty.”
For me, it’s very telling that Mr. Hillyer’s last point was a quote from George Will....
There’s no way I’d ever vote for Pence.
That doesn't make sense.
If the government spends N amount per student per year who attends a public school, and could spend N-$1000 per student per year who attends a private school instead, the government would be saving $1,000 per student per year.
Hillyer, the writer of this love letter, ran for Congress in Alabama in 2013. He really has his finger on the pulse of real America.....he was 4th in a line of Republicans vying for the seat’s special election.
He’ll say anything to get elected and then he’ll do whatever the deep state wants him to do....
It sounds more like a PR piece published as a trial balloon to see what kind of response it will get.
It basically is the same ole playbook Republicans have had for decades.
The problem with Republicans is their lack of follow-through after they get elected. Trump accomplished more in his first 100 days than most Republican and Democrat presidents accomplished in 4 years. Of course, Trump was the only non-politician to hold the office in our lifetime. Pence is a politician.
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