From JCJOHNSO@VAX1.ACS.JMU.EDUSun Apr  2 10:29:50 1995
Date: Wed, 22 Feb 1995 10:10:15 -0500 (EST)
From: "J.C. Johnson, JMU Russian Dept" 
To: jhdaugh@a-albionic.com
Subject: Contract With America

Enjoy!
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                          THE CONTRACT WITH AMERICA
 
 
THE BACKGROUND:
 
On Tuesday, September 27, more than 300 Republicans hoping to
serve in the House of Representatives next year will gather on
the steps of the United States Capitol to unveil a proposed
"Contract With America," the ten bills Americans would see in
the first 100 days of the first Republican controlled House in
40 years.
 
After nearly two years of the most promise-breaking, waffling
and spin-addicted White House in history, the public has grown
cynical of promises to provide middle class tax relief, reform
welfare, restore accountability to congress and cut spending.
And after 40 years of one party control of the House, they no
longer feel they have the power to hold their elected
representatives accountable. The Contract will allow people to
hold us accountable, measure our performance and, if we break
the contract, throw us out.
 
Some have questioned the wisdom of trying to "nationalize"
congressional elections. In this election year, Bill Clinton's
historically inept performance and doubts about his character
have raised the national context dramatically, but negatively.
Our Contract is designed to invest the already largely
nationalized election with positive meaning. Winning only on
a negative message might bring gains in the short-run, but
would deepen the already dangerously cynical public mood,
which would not be in the public's best interest in the
long-run.
 
With the prospect of working control, if not numerical
control, of the House in the next Congress, it is our
responsibility to present a clear vision of how Republicans
would govern. After swearing in the first Republican Speaker
since Joe Martin (R-MA) in the 83rd Congress, we will on the
first day of session cut the number of committees and
subcommittees, cut committee staff by one-third, ban proxy
voting, require a three-fifths vote to pass any tax increase,
eliminate "baseline" budgeting and use honest numbers, and
announce an audit of the House's books.
 
After changing the way the House conducts business, we will
change the kind of business the House has been conducting.
Instead of passing bills that pile taxes, spending, and
regulations ever higher, we'll scale back the size of
government to make it more efficient and ease the burden on
taxpayers and small business people.
 
In the first 100 days, we're pledging in writing to bring to
a vote:
 
     1.    A balanced budget amendment and line item veto;
 
     2.   A crime bill that funds police and prisons over
          social programs;
 
     3.   Real welfare reform;
 
     4.   Family reinforcement measures that strengthen
          parental rights in education and child support
          enforcement;
 
     5.   Family tax cuts;
 
     6.   Stronger national defense;
 
     7.   A rise in the Social Security earnings limit to stop
          penalizing working seniors;
 
     8.   Job creation and regulatory reform policies;
 
     9.   Common sense legal reforms to stop frivolous
          lawsuits; and
 
     10.  A first-ever vote on term limits for members of
          Congress.
 
 
                          WHAT ABOUT THE DEFICIT?
 
The notion of cutting Federal spending is so alien to the
Clinton Administration and Democrats in Congress they can only
assume that providing middle class families tax relief or
repealing their tax increases on senior citizens means
increasing the deficit (or raising taxes on others). Before
details of the ten bills in the Contract with America had even
been finalized, the White House was telling reporters the
package would cost a whopping S1 trillion-plus.
 
This is what's known in politics as "the big lie." The White
House approach is, "if you're going to make up numbers, make
up big ones." The truth is that using CBO numbers where
available and its methodology when prior estimates do not
apply, the net "cost" of the ten bills in the Contract is
about $148 billion over five years -- or about one third the
level of specific spending cuts offered in each of the
Republican budget initiatives offered in 1993 and 1994. All
costs will be offset with specific spending cuts, which House
Republicans now have a solid record of supporting.
 
It is exactly this willingness to cut the size and scope of
the Federal government that most scares the Democrats.
Knowing that most Americans agree that this government is too
big and spends and regulates too much, they resort to phony
numbers they hope will scare voters.  Ceding power back to
American families and individuals is very threatening to the
party of big government.  None of the ten bills increases
government spending by one thin dime, and the Administration's
bogus numbers are based on their assumptions about our family
tax cuts, job creation incentives, senior citizen equity,
stronger defense and the balanced budget amendment. While
inflating the costs of these items, they ignore cost savings
from items like welfare reform (in their world, "reform" means
more spending), regulatory budgets, and cuts in congressional
committee staff.  Throwing out big numbers for the tax
provisions diverts attention from issues like congressional
accountability, term limits, "loser pays" legal reform,
tougher child pornography laws, the line-item veto,
anti-violent crime measures, regulatory relief and other
aspects of the Contract that also arouse strong public support
but are suppressed by the Democrat majority in Congress.
 
REAL NUMBERS
 
REVENUE LOSERS: Accepting prior Joint Tax or CBO estimates and
methodology, the following provisions in the Contract will
cost money or reduce revenue (all estimates are preliminary,
and in billions of dollars over five years): $500 per child
tax credit (-$107 billion), Capital gains rate cut and
indexation (-$56), raise the Social Security earnings limit to
$30,000 (-$6.8), phased-in repeal of Clinton's Social Security
tax increase (-$17), reform of the anti-marriage bias in the
tax code (-$10). Raise the estate tax exemption from $600,000
to $750,000 (-$6.5) increasing small business annual expensing
level from $17,500 to $25,000 ($3.5).  $500 dependent care tax
credit (-$8) and tax incentives for long-term care (-$3.8).
Tax incentives for adoption and the home office deduction
correction amount to -S1.4 billion.
 
REVENUE GAINERS: The following provisions gain revenue or save
money (all estimates are preliminary and in billions over five
years): American Dream Savings Accounts (+$5 billion), neutral
cost recovery (+19.5), welfare reform (+$40), anti-violent
crime (+5), cut committee staff by one-third (+$1.0) and
regulatory budgets (+$0.5).  Interaction between certain
provisions in the contract also reduce its cost.  The
cumulative, approximate $148 billion dollar cost assumes our
policies will not create one job or raise the income level of
one American. It is based on standard, inside-the-beltway
"static" scoring methods. A recent analysis by two former
Treasury Department officials projects the policies in the
Contract with America would "boost the near term annual growth
rate by 2 percentage points" and "by the year 2000, annual GDP
would be $1.1 trillion higher than otherwise". This increased
growth would result in 3.1 million additional jobs, and would
actually result in a net gain in federal revenue of $623
billion from 1995 to 2000.
 
In the past, Republicans were criticized for arguing that they
could pay for new or bigger programs with the money from
pro-growth tax cuts. (Indeed, revenue doubled between 1980 and
1990, but the rate of federal spending outpaced it.) We
propose in the Contract with America to reign in the size of
government, and we propose it in specific, legislative
language.
 
Specific spending reductions like managed care for Medicaid
recipients ($10 billion over five years), means  testing
Medicare Part B ($7.35 billion), job training block grants
($7.6 billion can offset the approximate $140 billion five
year cost of the Contract, and take money out of the pockets
of Washington bureaucrats and back into the pockets of
America's families.
 
With the prospect of Republican House control for the first
time in forty years, it is important that Americans know what
we are for. The Contract with America is an honest effort to
provide a positive agenda. It is unfortunate that the Clinton
Administration has, in standard form, opted for misinformation
rather than rising to the challenge of intellectually debating
the issues raised by our ten bills. The bottom line is that
since coming to Washington, the Clinton Administration has
been governing against the grain of public sentiment, and we
are proposing a 100 days agenda that enjoys the overwhelming
support of the American public.
 September 27, 1994
 
Contract with America Speech
Rep. Dick Armey R-TX
 
Today we enter a new era in American government. Today, one
political party is listening to the concerns of the American
people and responding with specific legislation. We are united
here today -- over 150 current Members of the House and over
200 candidates -- united in the belief that "the people's
House" must be wrested from the grip of special interest
groups and handed back to "the people."
 
Americans today are cynical. They are tired of broken
promises, tired of being misled, tired of "spin" from a White
House that seems to govern on the principle that you can fool
all of the people some of the time.
 
Through the lenses of C-SPAN's cameras, Americans are dismayed
by the sight of a revered institution corrupted by absolute
power, a House of Representatives that now routinely stifles
free and open debate, cobbles together thousand-page bills
behind closed doors, refuses to live by the laws it imposes on
everyone else, and -- most damaging -- has adopted as its
central philosophy the belief that ordinary people can not be
trusted to spend their own money and make their own decisions.
 
If the American people are willing to let us, we're willing to
change all that.  Today, we Republicans are signing a
"Contract with America."  We pledge ourselves, in writing, to
a new agenda of reform, respect, and renewal: Reform of
Congress and other government institutions. Respect for the
people we serve and represent. And renewal of the American
Dream that each day seems to slip further from the grasp of
too many families.
 
We make this explicit offer: Give us majority control of the
House of Representatives for the first time in four decades
and we will bring to the House floor on the first day real
Congressional reforms. In the first 100 days, we will bring to
a vote ten bills that would have an immediate and real impact
in the lives of ordinary Americans.
 
We will bring all these bills to the floor for an up or down
vote, with open and fair debate, where everyone's views are
heard as we embark on a new direction for Congress and a new
partnership with the American people.
 
We put these bills in a contract so people can hold us
accountable -- and there's an enforcement clause. We
explicitly state, "If you give us control and we don't do what
we say, throw us out." We mean it, and we take it as an
article of faith that the American people will mean it, too.
 
Our Contract with America agenda was put together by everyone
you see here today, working together to draft common sense
legislation to address the many real problems where government
can play a proper role. The ten bills that make up our
Contract with America are available now, in full legislative
language. Unlike the current Ruling Party in Congress that
routinely forces us to vote on thousand-page bills without a
chance to read them, we are not afraid to subject our work to
the purifying light of day. We are making a Contract today to
run Congress in the open, with the full participation of the
American people -- if they give us the opportunity.
 
Our Contract with America is just the opening one hundred days
of accountable government. The Contract is not the answer to
every problem facing America today. It is an honest beginning,
and an effort to invest this election with some positive
meaning, because running solely against an unpopular president
would only deepen the public's cynicism.
 
Winston Churchill once said, "Americans always do the right
thing . . . after they have exhausted every other
possibility." After 40 years of uninterrupted control, the
Democrats have exhausted every other possibility, and it is
time for the Republican party to accept the role of leadership
the American people are demanding. Today we pledge to begin by
bringing relief to the average family, which now pays more in
taxes than food, shelter and clothing combined; cutting the
size and influence of the federal government; and restoring
accountability to the political process.
 
In short, we propose to cede back power from the hallowed
halls of Congress to the more hallowed kitchen tables of
America, where night after night families bow their heads in
thanks and make decisions about education, charity, jobs,
spending, debt, and values with a wisdom and compassion that
no number of agency heads, cabinet secretaries or members of
Congress could ever match. Our Contract recognizes the limits
of government and the unlimited contribution of husbands and
wives, mothers and fathers, children and grandparents in a
safe and prosperous America.
 
It is now my pleasure to introduce Congressman Bill Paxon of
New York, who chairs the National Republican Congressional
Committee. Bill made sure that candidates had as much input in
this document as sitting members, and he is largely
responsible for the prospect of electing the first Republican
House majority in 40 years.
 
 
Contract with America Speech
Rep. Bill Paxon R-NY
 
 
As Republican Members of the House of Representatives and as
citizens seeking to join that body we propose not just to
change its policies, but even more important, to restore the
bonds of trust between the people and their elected
representatives.
 
That is why, in this era of official evasion and posturing, we
offer instead a detailed agenda for national renewal, a
written commitment with no fine print.  This year's election
offers the chance, after four decades of one-party control/,
to bring to the House a new majority that will transform the
way Congress works.  That historic change would be the end of
government that is too big, too intrusive, and too easy with
the public's money. It can be the beginning of a Congress that
respects the values and shares the faith of the American
family.
 
Like Lincoln, our first Republican president, we intend to act
"with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right.
To restore accountability to Congress. To end its cycle of
scandal and disgrace. To make us all proud again of the way
free people govern themselves.
 
On the first day of the 104th Congress, the new Republican
majority will immediately pass the following major reforms,
aimed at restoring the faith and trust of the American people
in their government:
 
FIRST, require all laws that apply to the rest of the country
also apply equally to the Congress;
 
SECOND, select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct
a comprehensive audit of Congress for waste, fraud or abuse;
 
THIRD, cut the number of House committees, and cut committee
staff by one-third;
 
FOURTH, limit the terms of all committee chairs;
 
FIFTH, ban the casting of proxy votes in committee;
 
SIXTH, require committee meetings to be open to the public;
 
SEVENTH, require a three-fifths majority vote to pass a tax
increase;
 
EIGHTH, guarantee an honest accounting of our Federal Budget
by implementing zero base-line budgeting.
 
Thereafter, within the first 100 days of the 104th Congress,
we shall bring to the House Floor the following bills, each to
be given full and open debate, each to be given a clear and
fair vote and each to be immediately available this day for
public inspection and scrutiny.
 
1. THE FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT
 
A balanced budget tax limitation amendment and a legislative
line-item veto to restore fiscal responsibility to an
out-of-control Congress, requiring them to live under the same
budget constraints as families and businesses.
 
2. THE TAKING BACK OUR STREETS ACT
 
An anti-crime package including stronger truth-in-sentencing,
"good faith' exclusionary rule exemptions, effective death
penalty provisions, and cuts in social spending from this
summer's "crime" bill to fund prison construction and
additional law enforcement to keep people secure in their
neighborhoods and kids safe in their schools.
 
3. THE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT
 
Discourage illegitimacy and teen pregnancy by prohibiting
welfare to minor mothers and denying increased AFDC for
additional children while on welfare, cut spending for welfare
programs, and enact a tough two-years-and-out provision with
work requirements to promote individual responsibility.
 
4. THE FAMILY REINFORCEMENT ACT
 
Child support enforcement, tax incentives for adoption,
strengthening rights of parents in their children's education,
stronger child pornography laws, and an elderly dependent care
tax credit to reinforce the central role of families in
American society.
 
5. THE AMERICAN DREAM RESTORATION ACT
 
A $500 per child tax credit, begin repeal of the marriage tax
penalty, and crestion of American Dream Savings Accounts to
provide middle class tax relief.
 
6. THE NATIONAL SECURITY RESTORATION ACT
 
No U.S. troops under U.N. command and restoration of the
essential parts of our national security funding to strengthen
our national defense and maintain our credibility around the
world.
 
7. THE SENIOR CITIZENS FAIRNESS ACT
 
Raise the Social Security earnings limit which currently
forces seniors out of the work force, repeal the 1993 tax
hikes on Social Security benefits and provide tax incentives
for private long-term care insurance to let Older Americans
keep more of what they have earned over the years.
 
8. THE JOB CREATION AND WAGE ENHANCEMENT ACT
 
Small business incentives, capital gains cut and indexation,
neutral cost recovery, risk assessment and cost-benefit
analysis, strengthening the Regulatory Flexibility Act and
unfunded mandate reform to create jobs and raise worker wages.
 
9. THE COMMON SENSE LEGAL REFORM ACT
 
"Loser pays" laws, reasonable limits on punitive damages and
reform of product liability laws to stem the endless tide of
litigation.
 
10. THE CITIZEN LEGISLATURE ACT
 
A first-ever vote on term limits to replace career politicians
with citizen legislators.  Further, we will instruct the House
Budget Committee to report to the floor and we will work to
enact additional budget savings, beyond the budget cuts
specifically included in the legislation described above, to
ensure that the Federal budget deficit will be less than it
would have been without the enactment of these bills.
 
Respecting the judgment of our fellow citizens as we seek
their mandate for reform, we hereby pledge our names to this
Contract with America.