GOP Pledges To Return America to Basics

Republican's campaign document promises to return America to the basics on taxing and spending

Just a few days after President Barack Obama issued his challenge to critics of his policies to produce their own plan for reducing government spending, the Republican Party did just that, with its Pledge for America outline for remaking the way the federal government operates.

Obama immediately dismissed the GOP's pledge as representing the tired ideas of the past.

Obama is right about one thing — there is little new in the Republican blueprint. It's a fairly basic commitment to reduce government spending, cut taxes instead of raising them and restore responsible lawmaking to Congress.

The GOP's document is obviously 100 percent about the current election campaign and ties in to the anger and frustration expressed by voters. But that doesn't dampen its usefulness.

Voters have good cause to be angry and frustrated. They did not get the sort of change they expected when they elected Obama in 2008 and gave him a Democratic majority in Congress. Instead of responsible spending, the federal budget has ballooned by more than one-third in less than two years. Instead of lower deficits, the annual budget shortfall has soared to above $1 trillion, where it is expected to stay for at least the next decade. And instead of an end to poisonous partisanship, some of the most impactful and controversial legislation in a half-century was rammed through Congress with only the votes of Democrats.

The Pledge to America deals with all of these issues.

But since it is in essence a political document, and not a true guide for policy-making, it sidesteps some things it ought to have dealt with, most notably the faulty foundation of Social Security.

What the GOP does promise is what Americans seem to want right now. The Republicans promise to take spending back to pre-Obama levels, a fairly uninspired goal given that the government was already spending far more than it was taking in before Obama arrived at the White House. But it's far better than the spending trajectory we're on now.

It also would stop the flow of stimulus money. That's a responsible first step. The stimulus spending so far has produced few, if any, jobs. It makes little sense to spend even more money the same way.

The GOP also guarantees it won't raise taxes — meaning it would extend the 2001 tax cuts for all income groups.

Doing that would remove some of the considerable uncertainty from the investment marketplace and get private money moving into the economy.

Finally, Republicans say they will repeal and rewrite Obamacare, a promise their voters expect them to keep, but one they may find difficult to fulfill absent control of the White House.

Again, this is purely politics. Putting promises on paper to address the things that are most worrying Americans is a smart political move.

But it also puts would-be Republican lawmakers on record saying what they will do if they take control of Congress.

Democratic lawmakers, who established a record over the past two years of delivering something different than what they promised, should consider doing the same.

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