To: exodus
Is it possible that the "Contract With America" only passed in the House because it was known that the Senate would torpedo it, thus RINOs felt safe voting for it?
# 114 by 185JHP
The "Contract With America" was a series of promises made by the Republicans. Yes, there is a very good chance that Republicans were lying about the Contract in order to gain power. I suspect as much, myself.
Here's the text of the Contract.
That is why, in this era of official evasion and posturing, we offer instead a detailed agenda for national renewal, a written commitment with no fine print.
This year's election offers the chance, after four decades of one-party control, to bring to the House a new majority that will transform the way Congress works. That historic change would be the end of government that is too big, too intrusive, and too easy with the public's money. It can be the beginning of a Congress that respects the values and shares the faith of the American family.
Like Lincoln, our first Republican president, we intend to act "with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right." To restore accountability to Congress. To end its cycle of scandal and disgrace. To make us all proud again of the way free people govern themselves.
On the first day of the 104th Congress, the new Republican majority will immediately pass the following major reforms, aimed at restoring the faith and trust of the American people in their government:
Thereafter, within the first 100 days of the 104th Congress, we shall bring to the House Floor the following bills, each to be given full and open debate, each to be given a clear and fair vote and each to be immediately available this day for public inspection and scrutiny.
1. THE FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT: A balanced budget/tax limitation amendment and a legislative line-item veto to restore fiscal responsibility to an out- of-control Congress, requiring them to live under the same budget constraints as families and businesses. (Bill Text) (Description)
2. THE TAKING BACK OUR STREETS ACT: An anti-crime package including stronger truth-in- sentencing, "good faith" exclusionary rule exemptions, effective death penalty provisions, and cuts in social spending from this summer's "crime" bill to fund prison construction and additional law enforcement to keep people secure in their neighborhoods and kids safe in their schools. (Bill Text) (Description)
3. THE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT: Discourage illegitimacy and teen pregnancy by prohibiting welfare to minor mothers and denying increased AFDC for additional children while on welfare, cut spending for welfare programs, and enact a tough two-years-and-out provision with work requirements to promote individual responsibility. (Bill Text) (Description)
4. THE FAMILY REINFORCEMENT ACT: Child support enforcement, tax incentives for adoption, strengthening rights of parents in their children's education, stronger child pornography laws, and an elderly dependent care tax credit to reinforce the central role of families in American society. (Bill Text) (Description)
5. THE AMERICAN DREAM RESTORATION ACT: A S500 per child tax credit, begin repeal of the marriage tax penalty, and creation of American Dream Savings Accounts to provide middle class tax relief. (Bill Text) (Description)
6. THE NATIONAL SECURITY RESTORATION ACT: No U.S. troops under U.N. command and restoration of the essential parts of our national security funding to strengthen our national defense and maintain our credibility around the world. (Bill Text) (Description)
7. THE SENIOR CITIZENS FAIRNESS ACT: Raise the Social Security earnings limit which currently forces seniors out of the work force, repeal the 1993 tax hikes on Social Security benefits and provide tax incentives for private long-term care insurance to let Older Americans keep more of what they have earned over the years. (Bill Text) (Description)
8. THE JOB CREATION AND WAGE ENHANCEMENT ACT: Small business incentives, capital gains cut and indexation, neutral cost recovery, risk assessment/cost-benefit analysis, strengthening the Regulatory Flexibility Act and unfunded mandate reform to create jobs and raise worker wages. (Bill Text) (Description)
9. THE COMMON SENSE LEGAL REFORM ACT: "Loser pays" laws, reasonable limits on punitive damages and reform of product liability laws to stem the endless tide of litigation. (Bill Text) (Description)
10. THE CITIZEN LEGISLATURE ACT: A first-ever vote on term limits to replace career politicians with citizen legislators. (Description)
Further, we will instruct the House Budget Committee to report to the floor and we will work to enact additional budget savings, beyond the budget cuts specifically included in the legislation described above, to ensure that the Federal budget deficit will be less than it would have been without the enactment of these bills.
Respecting the judgment of our fellow citizens as we seek their mandate for reform, we hereby pledge our names to this Contract with America.
Now we are at a much different point in history. America is threatened with drowning because our ship is off course. I welcome Jim Robinson to the discussion and hope you will share with us how sailing blindly with the current Captain and crew will turn the ship before tragedy can be avoided, or your plan to convince the Captain, crew and other passengers to change course before it becomes every man for himself. So far no one has been thrown overboard. Do you see the risk that many Americans are going to be in the water, but the life jackets of government promises including social security and medicare will be worthless against the cold. Can you buy enough time to make enough life boats? Are you afraid to make a serious effort to actually change course in hopes of saving the ship and its passengers? I submit that we have almost run out of time. I think its change course or abandon ship, and we all know there are not and will not be enough life boats. Swimming offers no protection against the cold. Which is the greater risk? A full scale effort to change course, or hoping rescuers will arrive before the folks in the water are left out in the cold. And if we hit the ice, make no mistake some Americans will go down with the ship along with Captain and crew.
FreeRepublic alone will not change the course and save the ship. But catalysts are amazing gadgets. They dramatically increase the speed with which reactions run and they can do so against the natural gradient or equilibrium point. Indeed they can drive reactions almost to completion in the opposite direction. FreeRepublic is capable of being the catalyst that forcibly drags Republicans back to the Constitution. It can be the catalyst that makes them put the interest of America above their own perceived self-interest. I would suggest that if we can't save the United States and our freedoms, I would rather see the ship go down and am willing to take my chances of ending up in a boat or the water. If it came down to it, I would rather go down with the ship fighting for a chance to be free that stay onboard a socialistic ship.
FreeRepublic represents a microcosm of the United States. You are the Captain at FreeRepublic. Where you are willing to lead, I think there will be many willing to follow. The discussion has been framed. I think the choices are difficult and only God knows which if any will work. I consider myself to be an agnostic, despite the almost overwhelming evidence that the United States was inspired by Divine Providence and the increasingly very high odds against the accidental origin of life and the universe. I struggle because I can't see the grand design or plan and its ultimate resolution. Now, maybe more than ever we need Divine Intervention. Most of our Constitutional rights and liberties have been usurped by Presidents, Congresses and Courts bent on exercising power over the people. They have incurred the favors of the people by promising one group of Americans that they will take the produce of other Americans and give it them as the favored groups. Every principle of the equality of man is trashed. Both the favored and the raped are losers. Only the Powers That Be in government gain from the exchange.
Jim Robinson, you must answer the questions for yourself. How long can we continue with the present course? How can we change the course? Who will change the course? I don't think there is any doubt about your ability to determine the course of FreeRepublic. Can any political party change the course of the United States toward our Constitutional Republic other than the Republican Party before we hit the ice? Who or how can the course of the Republican Party be changed for the better? The Internet and Forum for Ideas on FreeRepublic is an extraordinarily powerful tool. Jim Robinson, do you deny that FreeRepublic played a crucial, if not the critical role in impeachment? Would you deny the role of the Contract with America in the results of the 1994 Congressional elections? Ronald Reagan's election in 1980 could have simply been the result of a combination of a terrible economy, coupled with a weak leader as existing president who was faced with a charismatic extremely well-spoken opponent. But could Reagan have enacted his tax cuts over the opposition of an over whelmingly Democratic Congress with powerful leaders who were absolutely committed to the defeat of Reagan's plan without convincing the American people of the validity of his ideas. It is only the immense power of propaganda exercised by a media that is 90% committed to the Democrats' socialistic agenda that has allowed Democrats to steal election after election from Republicans until Republicans lost faith in the people and now pander to the same interests as the Democrats. Republicans lost faith again after the successful assassination of Newt by his own hand and serial assassinations of Republicans in the aftermath created by the vaccuum of Newt's absence.
We must get the attention of the Republican leadership and the members of the Congressional delegations and get them back on the Conservative course. Please explain to me why you think blindly voting Republican will change their direction. Explain why I am wrong in contending that when conservatives blindly vote Republican, it only encourages Republicans to move further to the left to gain addtional Democratic votes. Even where there are genunine conservative Republicans in Congress, I would argue that keeping them in office carries some risk since they are not getting the job done in terms of leading other Republcians to enforce the provisions of the Constitution. Don't lose sight of the big picture. All we are asking of Republicans or anyone in the government is too simply enforce the Constitution and stop circumventing or flaunting it. Most of our existing federal statutes and most of the departments of government have no Constitutional basis and are frankly unconstitutional. How little are we asking? And in exchange for our vote, you would demand nothing.
How long are you willing to wait to get your freedom back? How many more are you willing to surrender while we wait? Do you think there is limit as to how much Congress and indeed even Republicans seem willing to take? Have you examined the Patriot Act signed by Bush? How about the farm bill he signed or the tariffs? How many of Clinton's executive orders has he repealed? When he was elected governor of Texas, his first official act was to withdraw the Coastal Management Plan submitted to Congress by Ann Richards. You cannot imagine my euphoria. Less than four months later he resubmitted it largely unchanged to Congress with his signature, but he appointed his own man and fired Richard's choice to be the man in charge. Blindly re-electing people who are part of the problem because the alternatives are worse is not a solution. It is merely a form of delay that contined long enough simply compounds and prevents a real solution from being found or implemented. Whether you recognize or admit it, we are at that point now. Soon we will be beyond the point of no return.
MY VOTE IS FOR SALE using the CONTRACT WITH CONGRESS is a powerful tool for change. Employed using FreeRepublic as the catalyst, it can change the Republican Party. In turn the Republican Party may be able to change the course of the United States while there is still time.
I ask you again Jim Robinson, "Will you become a patriot and fight for freedom now, or are you going to continue letting the Republicans use you for a patsy?" You want to restore the Constitution; they want to stay in office and with your vote safely tucked away they are free to move left and try to take Democratic votes with more socialism. Which Medicare plan for drugs for seniors do you favor? Which version of the minimum wage increase will the Republcans pass next? How many more immigrants will Bush cater to and how? What will he take from you and promise to them? How long will this continue to go on or when and where will it stop? If it doesn't stop now with the Contract with Congress, it may simply be too late to stop it at all. It could be up to you Jim, now or never? Are you willing to lead this fight, or is it time for those of us who want to use this weapon in the fight for freedom to look for other alternatives?