Republicans have billed their “Pledge
to America” as a governing agenda, but it is nothing of the
sort. Instead of offering bold solutions to today’s most pressing
challenges, Republicans chose to compile some small ideas that
wouldn’t endanger their chances of regaining the majority this
November.
National Review’s editors, in their
endorsement of the “Pledge,” argue that its proposals are
bolder than 1994’s “Contract With America.” That may be so, but the
times we’re living in call for much more drastic measures than
before. In 1994, the Cold War had just ended, the annual deficit
was at $203 billion and trending downward, unemployment was at
under 6 percent and falling, HillaryCare had just gone down in
flames, and we still had decades to deal with the entitlement
crisis. Today we’re engaged in two wars as well as facing the
broader threat from Islamic terrorism, the deficit stands at over
$1.3 trillion, the unemployment rate has been hovering near the
double-digits and isn’t receding, ObamaCare is the law of the land,
and the entitlement crisis is upon us — or just
a few years away if you’re being more charitable.
One Republican (Rep. Paul Ryan) has at least taken a stab at
proposing
a comprehensive set of solutions that aim to address our nation’s
problems, but his fellow GOP House members have run away from the
plan like the plague, and are reinforcing their timidity by
releasing today’s document.
Take the document’s economic proposals. Republicans have largely
recycled ideas such as extending the Bush tax cuts, offering small
business owners a tax deduction, and reducing regulation. Yet given
the maginitude of the problems we face, we have to think much more
ambitiously about an overhaul of our complex tax system that
inhibits growth and restricts global competitiveness.
Republicans call for repealing the health care law, which I
support, but their replacement proposals ignore the fact that even
with ObamaCare undone, we still need to fundamentally change our
health care system. Instead of proposing something that would move
us away from a system where employers and government dominate the
market and toward a system where individuals would have control
over their own health care dollars and choose policies that suit
their budget and medical needs, Republicans chose to play small
ball. A few proposals — such as preventing taxpayer funding for
abortions and allowing individuals to purchase insurance across
state lines — are worthy of support, but they fall far short of a
vision for real reform our health care system. And they are coupled
with vague promises, such as “We will incentivize states to develop
innovative programs that lower premiums and reduce the number of
uninsured Americans” and “We will repeal President Obama’s
government takeover of health care and replace it with common-sense
reforms focused on strengthening the doctor patient
relationship.”
But the most egregious problem with this “Pledge” is that it’s a
slap in the face to the youth of America. While it proposes ideas
such as rolling back discretionary spending to 2008 levels, it
completely avoids any concrete proposals on the biggest threat
facing America: our looming entitlement crisis. Instead, the
document reads: “We will make the decisions that are necessary to
protect our entitlement programs for today’s seniors and future
generations. That means requiring a full accounting of Social
Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, setting benchmarks for these
programs and reviewing them regularly, and preventing the expansion
of unfunded liabilities.” So in other words: “trust us.” This
coming from the party that added trillions to our long-term
deficits by enacting the Medicare prescription drug plan. And it’s
worth noting that at another place in the document, the GOP attacks
Medicare cuts within the new health care law.
I understand that some would argue that it’s unrealistic to
expect a major political party to propose serious entitlement
reform weeks before the election. But by the same token,
Republicans shouldn’t expect conservatives to adopt this exercise
in cowardice as their battle cry. Republicans like to address Tea
Parties and talk in terms of the revolutionary spirit sweeping
across the nation, and they even invoke the Declaration of
Independence in the opening of their “Pledge to America.” But the
proposals contained within the document show that all this
revolutionary talk is mere rhetoric, and that in reality
Republicans have learned nothing from their time in the wilderness.
The House Republicans are interested in attaining and then
maintaining power, and not concerned with advancing the cause of
limited government at a make-or-break moment in American
history.
