This document proves the GOP is more focused on the acquisition of power than the advocacy of long term sound public policy. All the good stuff in it is stuff we expect them to do. What is not in it is more than a little telling that the House GOP has not learned much of anything from 2006.
I will vote Republican in November of 2010. But I will not carry their stagnant water.
Ouch.
This thing would carry a lot more weight with me if it started with an abject apology. After all, the reason we are down in this economic ditch is entirely due to the GOP's harebrained policy ideas. I suppose that wouldn't make much sense, though. "Yeah, we screwed everything up and wrecked your future, but here's how we're going to fix it...by doing what we did to screw things up in the first place." Nah, that probably wouldn't fly.
It sure sounds like the GOP wants to get things done, though. One should bear in mind, however, the various pieces of legislation they've managed to block while in the minority. You have to ask yourself how committed Republicans are to the "deepest beliefs of the American people" after they killed or tried to kill:
- Franken's Anti-Rape Amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill: a bill to allow women who are raped while working overseas to have their case heard in an American court. Every Republican male in the Senate voted against it, but it managed to pass.
- Benefits for homeless veterans and homeless veterans with children: successfully blocked by the GOP.
- Health care for 9/11 first responders: successfully blocked by the GOP.
- A Jobs bill that gives tax breaks to companies that hire new employees: successfully blocked by the GOP.
- Stricter regulations for financial institutions to keep them from destroying the economy again: Republicans attempted to block this but failed.
- The stimulus package: Republicans went wild and wooly trying to block this, then turned around and took credit for the multiple aspects of the bill that worked.
- Oil spill liability to make oil companies pay more to clean up after a spill: successfully blocked by the GOP.
- Unemployment benefits extension for millions of unemployed people who are trying to hold on: blocked by the GOP for weeks before it finally passed.
- The Fair Pay Act, a.k.a. The Lilly Ledbetter bill, to ensure women are paid the same wages as men: the GOP tried to block it.
The list goes on, but you get the idea. If these actions are any indication, the true nature of the GOP's "Pledge to America" involves screwing as many people over as possible while lining their own pockets and the pockets of their wealthiest constituents.
Despite its myriad flaws, don't be surprised if this thing actually works. The "Contract with America" was less than 900 words long but managed to give the GOP majority control until 2006, so stranger things have happened. And then, of course, there are the Democrats, who could screw up the recipe for boiled water. On the same day the "Pledge" was released, both House and Senate Democrats made the mind-boggling decision to punt on the vote to repeal the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. The poll numbers in favor of such a repeal are through the roof, but these dunderheaded Democrats are refusing to move on it, thus denying themselves a key platform to run on in the midterms.
So, yeah, the "Pledge" is so stupid that it just might work...with a little help from the majority, of course.
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