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House Republicans aren’t quite batting 1.000 on the sweeping promises they made when they grabbed control of the House last year. But they sure are coming close. Six months into the Republican majority, a closer look at the GOP’s “Pledge to America” and its election-season promises shows the new majority has lived up to the agenda: The GOP passed a bill to repeal health care reform; it extended the Bush-era tax rates; it has been posting bills three days ahead of votes, as promised; and it has banned earmarks. House Republicans have also cut federal spending — though not nearly...

House Republicans will fall approximately $20 billion short of their commitment to hold non-defense, discretionary spending for fiscal year 2011 to 2008 levels. According to House Appropriations Committee sources, the fiscal 2011 budget deal reached by Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and President Obama last Friday will push non-defense discretionary spending $20 billion higher than the 2008 level House Republicans had promised voters. In their 2010 Pledge to America, House Republicans promised that “with common-sense exceptions for seniors, veterans, and our troops, we will roll back government spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels.” However, with the...

Washington, Feb 3 - Today, Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) announced his plan to introduce legislation that will address all three areas of immigration reform laid out in the Pledge to America. "This week I traveled to the US-Mexico Border. I had the opportunity to witness the challenges facing our Customs personnel and the Border Patrol, and I learned first-hand what resources and tools are necessary to improve operational control of the border," said Rep. Ed Royce. Based on the provisions included in A Pledge to America, Rep. Royce’s legislation will call for establishing operational control of the border, working with...

I don't know about you, but I voted in November to send a message to stop run-away spending, stop government expansion, and defend our country from our enemies. I voted against incumbents, both Republican and Democrats, who voted against my wishes. Yes, I celebrated with my compatriots across the country who voted the same way I did. Unfortunately I am sensing that this new class of politicians may disappoint just like the last one! Already I am getting a sinking feeling in my gut that this new crop of politicians may fall prey to the same inside the beltway disease....

In speech after speech lately, President Obama has vowed to oppose a Republican proposal “to cut education by 20 percent,” a cut that would “eliminate 200,000 children from Head Start programs” and “reduce financial aid for 8 million college students.” Except that, strictly speaking, the Republicans have made no such proposal. The expansive but vague Pledge to America produced by House Republicans does promise deep cuts in domestic spending, but it gives no further detail about which programs would be slashed. So Mr. Obama has filled in his own details as if they were in the Republican plan. With the...

The Republican Party has a history of using desperate times to call for drastic measures and when bailing out AIG, bolstering Medicare or bombing Iraq, that party has always been willing to go big and bold on some of the largest government expansions in this nation’s history. But what about cutting government? You know, that stuff GOP politicians always talk about during election time? One might think that in a political environment in which so many are desperate to reverse what they see as unsustainable government growth, Republican rhetoric might at least attempt to reflect that desperation. But when GOP...

The House Republicans' "Pledge to America" calls for an extension of the Bush tax cuts for all; a rollback of government spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels; "strict budget caps"; an end to the Troubled Asset Relief Program and the rest of the Obama stimulus package. What's not to like? Having been asked what they would do differently if they ran the House, the Republicans came up with an answer. Meanwhile, the Democrats run the House, but they are not acting as if they are in charge. They haven't passed a budget. They're putting off a vote to extend all or...

House Republicans' new "Pledge to America" has met with mixed reaction. However, most Americans -- even those in Congress -- should be able to agree on at least one item in the 21-page agenda: the proposal to address federal subsidies for elective abortion once and for all. Poll after poll shows 70 percent or more of voters oppose taxpayer funding of abortion. A dispute in Congress over it dominated the closing stages of debate on Obamacare. Democrats might well have passed their legislative overhaul of health care months sooner had it not been for their party's internal battles over abortion....

House Republicans have been relatively successful this week at presenting a united front around their “Pledge to America,” but only through a strategic outreach campaign to lawmakers, media and outside groups, that has managed to keep deep dissatisfaction over several key issues largely under wraps. Still, interviews with Republican aides reveal that many in the GOP caucus are unhappy that there was no earmark ban and no promise to pass a balanced budget amendment in the proposal, which was unveiled Thursday by House Minority Leader John Boehner. The inclusion of a health insurance provision considered to be mandate angered many...

I CAN SEE FOR MILES (WHO, 1967) Here is the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEBDAeLDqtk Here is the lyrics: http://www.musicsonglyrics.com/W/thewholyrics/thewhoicanseeformileslyrics.htm

On Sept. 23 last week, 12 Republican House members stood in a hardware store in Sterling, Va., and issued a Pledge to America. As for Obamacare, a few months ago Republican leaders were reluctant to call for repeal. They may have feared that Nancy Pelosi and Bill Clinton were right when they predicted the legislation would become more popular when passed. Or they may have been wary of sounding extreme. But now they're squarely for repeal. It turns out to be a stand most Republican primary voters demand and most general election voters support.

Reading through the Republican Party's new Pledge to America, I wasn't terribly surprised by any of their proposals. As The Daily Show's Jon Stewart aptly noted, much of it involves the same old ideas the GOP has been pushing for 30 years. In one particularly telling moment, Stewart shows House Republican Leader John Boehner using the exact same words 12 years ago that he used this week. After a few years out of power, Republicans now vow to promote "traditional families," stop government spending, cut taxes, reduce the size of government and support our troops. It doesn't matter that they...

On the political gimmickry scale, the GOP's new "Pledge to America" is worse than some, better than others. Let's say it falls somewhere between the Federalist Papers and a Harry Reid press release -- which, admittedly, pins it down as much as saying you lost a cufflink somewhere between Burkina Faso and Cleveland. First and foremost it promises to focus on job creation, vowing to stop all scheduled tax hikes (i.e., the expiration of the Bush tax cuts). It offers a steep tax deduction for small businesses and a renewed commitment to curbing business-stifling regulations. The Pledge also stands athwart...

The Republicans just rolled out their "Pledge to America" that will supposedly fix America's financial and debt crisis. But it won't! Because it just calls for tax cuts -- with no real reduction in spending! We thought Republicans were supposed to be the TOUGH party, the folks who could make the hard decisions. But this "Pledge To America" is WIMPY WIMPY WIMPY! Grow a pair, Republicans! SAY what you're actually going to cut!

The Republicans' "Pledge to America" is an encouraging step on the road back to recapturing America. It's not enough for Republicans merely to stop Obama's disastrously destructive agenda in its tracks. This pledge is their acknowledgment that they have heard the grass roots, too -- that they are not exempt from scrutiny or accountability merely because they are the anti-Obamas. Rep. Paul Ryan conceded as much in an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos when he said that the Republicans have lost their way in the past and that with this pledge, they are embracing bold steps to get this nation...

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...

Well, you can't say you don't know what Republicans stand for anymore. If the "Pledge to America" unveiled Thursday were a genuine attempt to solve the country's economic troubles by living up to GOP principles of low taxation and spending, we might find more in it to like. Instead, it's a manifesto of meaningless bromides served up to please "tea party" activists, disingenuous attacks on Democrats and President Obama, and policy prescriptions that are at best impractical and at worst deeply counterproductive. What Republicans agree on, based on the key elements of the pledge, is that Obama's healthcare reform law...

Rep. Paul Ryan dismissed the president’s criticism that the Republican’s new "Pledge to America" is just more of the same – instead Ryan promised a “stark contrast” to the current administration as well as previous GOP agendas. “We need to own up to the fact when we were in the majority we spent too much money. We lost our way and we are going to get that back,” the Wisconsin Republican said. “We’re not here offering a plan to reinvent America. We are here trying to reclaim our country by rededicating ourselves to those timeless principles that made us exceptional.”...

Today the Republican Party rolled out a 21-page political agenda they've dubbed 'Pledge To America.' Recalling Republicans' 1994 "Contract With America," the Pledge is the GOP's gimmicky attempt to lay out what their agenda will be if they regain control of one or both houses of Congress. Included in the "Pledge To America" is a promise to cap federal hiring. This provision would hurt American workers in a number of ways. By cutting--not creating--more jobs in an economy where there are already nearly five unemployed workers for every job opening. By enacting a hiring freeze which could result in an...

Republican leader John Boehner (R-Oh) and his Republican House colleagues released their "Pledge to America" yesterday. As you might have guessed, Congressional Democrats and their allies in the Popular Press came out swinging: Too broad. Not enough specifics. No promise to cut out earmarks. Nothing new. Blah, blah … blah. Here's what I said (I have edited this slightly to make me sound smarter than I actually was, but this is the thrust) to one of my favorite sparring partners, pollster Cornell Belcher, on CNN last night. Cornell, in your next poll ask this question: Thinking about the Republican's "Pledge...