http://washingtonexaminer.com/gop-heads-into-midterms-without-detailed-conservative-manifesto/article/2553651GOP heads into midterms without detailed conservative manifesto
BY JOSEPH LAWLER | SEPTEMBER 19, 2014 | 5:02 AM
Republicans are hoping for another midterm election victory, but are going into November without the ambitious, detailed agenda that some on the Right would like to see.
Unlike when the Tea Party-boosted GOP retook the House of Representatives in 2012, or in the 1994 Gingrich Revolution, Republicans are not offering a Pledge to America or Contract with America, even though they are generally expected to expand their edge in the House and gain a narrow majority in the Senate.
House Speaker John Boehner released a five-point economic plan Thursday that outlined general areas of reform, including cutting spending and reforming taxes. The agenda, however, did not include the detailed legislative proposals that were included in the Pledge to America four years ago.
“It looks more like a campaign issue page than a legislative agenda,” said Jacqueline Bodnar, a representative for the small-government group Freedomworks.
Former Speaker Newt Gingrich warned Wednesday that “the fact that we do not have positive themes and positive issues is going to cost us seats this fall because moderates and independents aren’t going to turn out. It’s an enormous mistake,” according to National Review.
Gingrich praised Boehner’s five points as “very, very good,” but warned that Republican candidates had to embrace a proactive agenda. “You just have to sound like you’re more than anti-Obama and you’re more than some pathetically narrow, negative politician whose primary role in life is to raise money for your consultant to buy attack ads,” he said.
Dan Holler, a spokesman for the conservative action group Heritage Action, told the Washington Examiner that “the Republican Party needs to inspire Americans and give them a reason to be excited.” Holler added that “the speaker missed a huge opportunity to take on the cronyism and corporate welfare inherent in Freddie and Fannie, for example, even though a bill to end the institutions has passed out of committee," a reference to the bailed-out government-sponsored mortgage enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
By not committing to specific legislative plans, Republicans are less likely to pass legislation under a Democratic president, argued the libertarian Cato Institute’s director of tax policy studies Chris Edwards.
Edwards cited the 1996 welfare reform, signed into law by President Clinton after being passed by a GOP Congress, and the 1986 tax code overhaul as legislative achievements that were only enacted because they were demanded on the campaign trail.
“If [Boehner] really wants to change Washington, then yes, he absolutely he should come out with a detailed plan. If he just wants to win elections, then no,” Edwards said.
For his part, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has listed several smaller items the GOP would pursue if it wins in November, including changing the definition of full-time work included in Obamacare and repealing the medical device tax, as well as approving the Keystone XL pipeline.
But a larger program such as the Pledge to America is missing. In part, that might be because some of the grassroots pressure from the Tea Party is also missing, as President Obama enters the last two years of his second term.
In 2010, Bodnar noted, Tea Party activists conducted a large online vote to establish a Contract from America to complement the official GOP document and advance their own agenda.
