Back in 1994, I supported the core of Newt Gingrich's Contract With
America. The Contract promised:
- Accountability: The government is too big and spends too much, and Congress
and unelected bureaucrats have become so entrenched to be unresponsive
to the public they are supposed to serve. The GOP contract restores accountability
to government. - Responsibility: Bigger government and more federal programs usurp personal
responsibility from families and individuals. The GOP contract restores
a proper balance between government and personal responsibility. - Opportunity: The American Dream is out of the reach of too many families
because of burdensome government regulations and harsh tax laws. The GOP
contract restores the American dream.
Voters across the country accepted the Contract, and gave Republicans the
congressional majority they hold today.
But the Republicans have gone back on their word, and the results, particularly
under this administration, are the antithesis of the promises:
- Upward mobility is being choked off by dead-end jobs and the higher costs
of colleges brought on by the huge tax cuts. [Waking
Up From the American Dream] - While this administration lost more jobs than any since Hoover, Federal
government employment has risen during the same period. - Former Rep. Newt Gingrich, House speaker from 1995 to 1999, had pledged
in 1992: "I am committed to hunting down every appropriation that
we can find that is some politician taking care of himself." About
the same time, other House Republicans said that "the American people
are tired of paying tax dollars for congressional pork" and "a
pig is a pig even if he lives at home." but today we see Republicans
Indulging in Pork Along With Power [LA Times 12/08/2003] to
an unprecedented extent. - The promised "balanced budget/tax limitation amendment and a legislative
line-item veto to restore fiscal responsibility to an out- of-control Congress" has
become the
worst deficit and highest spending in the history of the nation [Washington
Times 12/08/2003].
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