GOP 'Pledge' Is Simply a Way of Shutting Down a Large Part of Government
by Gary Bass*, 9/23/2010
As Yogi Berra's redundant saying goes, "It's déjà vu all over again." Back in 1994, congressional Republicans unveiled what they called the "Contract with America." The Contract was chock-full of policy proposals intended to shrink the size of government, kneecap agencies' ability to protect the public, and decrease the burden on taxpayers, especially the rich.
Fast-forward to 2010, and we have John Boehner and Friends' "Pledge to America." The Pledge, cobbled together from comments from various forums and sprinkled with a variety of items from a number of conservative wish lists, contains some similar policy goals, though it appears to be far more driven by an angry, anti-government sentiment than the Contract with America was. Moreover, the Contract provided detailed descriptions of proposals; the Pledge is a set of bullet points with little detail. One conservative critic called it "pablum" in an article in the Washington Post.
Beyond the ultra-negative, unconstructive spin that opens the document, the Pledge contains what may be serious policy items buried within the bullet points. These include budget-busting tax cuts, spending cuts that would further shortchange Americans most in need, and a proposal that attempts to slow down and possibly stop public protections.