Many have expressed their thoughts on the new “Pledge to America” by the Republican House members. Had they asked me to write it, I would have at least pledged to end earmarks.

Yesterday morning, Arizona CD-8 candidate Jesse Kelly, a Marine combat vet who has never before run for public office, released a new campaign ad that expresses, in fewer than thirty seconds, some ideas that could have formed the basis for a better, shorter, more concrete and digestible “Pledge to America.”

Just off the top of my head, and using the kind of messaging Jesse Kelly employs in his latest ad, the Pledge could have been as short and sweet as follows:

We pledge to allow the American people to create jobs by cutting government spending 10 per cent across the board, except for national defense, and by undoing stupid regulations.

We will undo stupid legislation like the banning of the Thomas Edison incandescent light bulb.

We will privatize FannieMae and FreddieMac and bring to justice all those who stole money from them while presiding over disastrous policies there.

We will stop all bailouts and kill all further idiotic attempts to “stimulate” the economy because common sense tells us that deficit spending and higher taxes kill jobs and both, during a recession, are just plain stupid.

We will repeal Obamacare and let Americans continue to enjoy the best health care and health care free market in the world. We will endeavor to make that marketplace even more free, repealing foolish regulations, such as the ban on the sale of health insurance across state lines.

We will abolish unnecessary federal departments. We pledge to “zero out” both the Departments of Education and Commerce within two years.

We will stop taxpayer funding of all of the so-called federal Czars.

We will demand the Executive Branch secure our borders and aggressively track down all illegally within our borders and vigorously enforce our immigration laws against them — and, if the Executive Branch continues to play politics with illegal immigration and border security, hold hearing after hearing after hearing to let the Director of Homeland Security and the Attorney General explain to us, the elected representatives of the American people, their failures.

I also went ahead and tried to cut down the draft Pledge into a form that is more digestible:

We House Republicans Pledge to Do These Four Things:

1. End the Uncertainty and Create Incentives for Job Growth.

2. Balance the Budget.

3. Repeal the Job Killing Health Care Law and Replace it With Real Reform.

4. Restore Americans’ Trust in their Government.

5. Secure Our Nation, including Its Borders.

More specifically,

1. We Will End The Uncertainty and Create Incentives for Job Growth by:

• Permanently Stopping All Job-Killing Tax Hikes: We will help the economy by permanently stopping all tax increases, currently scheduled to take effect January 1, 2011. That means protecting middle-class families, seniors worried about their retirement, and the entrepreneurs and family-owned small businesses on which we depend to create jobs in America.

• Giving Small Businesses a 20 per cent Tax Deduction: We will allow small business owners to take a tax deduction equal to 20 percent of their business income. This will provide entrepreneurs with a much-needed infusion of capital for investment and new hiring.

• Killing the Red Tape Factory in Washington, DC: We will suspend the writing of new regulations for two years and, instead, repeal those regulations that no longer work.

• Repealing Job-Killing Small Business Mandates: We will repeal the idiotic 1099 reporting mandate so overbearing that the IRS ombudsman has determined that the agency can’t even handle oversight of this foolish, job-killing and profit-devouring nonsense.

2. We Will Balance the Budget by:

• Immediately Reducing Spending by Canceling All Unspent “Stimulus” Pork

• Cutting Government Spending to Pre-Stimulus, Pre-Bailout Levels: With common-sense exceptions for seniors, veterans, and our troops, we will roll back government spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels, saving us at least $100 billion in the first year alone.

• Capping All New Discretionary Spending: All budgets will be frozen to 2008 levels.

• Cutting Congress’ Budget: We will cut Congress’ budget 10 per cent across the board.

• Holding Weekly Votes on Spending Cuts: We will continue to hold weekly votes on spending cuts recommend by Americans through YouCut program.

• Ending TARP Immediately: We will cancel the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), a move that would save taxpayers roughly $16 billion.

• Ending Government Control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: We will reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by ending their government takeover, shrinking their portfolios, and establishing minimum capital standards. This will save taxpayers as much as $30 billion.

• Imposing a Net Federal Hiring Freeze of Non-Security Employees: We will impose a net hiring freeze on non-security federal employees and ensure that the public sector no longer grows at the expense of the private sector.

• Rooting Out Government Waste and Duplication: We will force Congress to determine if a program is worthy of continued taxpayer support and, if not, kill it.

• Reforming the Budget Process to Focus on Long-Term Challenges: We will make the decisions that are necessary to protect our entitlement programs for today’s seniors and future generations. That means requiring a full accounting of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid NOW, not later, and making sure these programs are reviewed regularly to prevent the expansion of unfunded liabilities.

3. We Will Repeal the Job Killing Health Care Law and Put in Place Real Reform by:

• Enacting Medical Liability Reform: We will enact common-sense medical liability reforms to lower costs, rein in junk lawsuits and curb defensive medicine.

• Allow Purchasing of Health Insurance Across State Lines: We will allow individuals to buy health care coverage outside of the state in which they live.

• Expanding Health Savings Accounts: We will repeal the new health care law, which prevents the use of these savings accounts to purchase over-the-counter medicine.

• Restoring the Doctor-Patient Relationship: We will repeal President Obama’s government takeover of health care and replace it with common-sense reforms focused on strengthening the doctor-patient relationship.

• Ensuring Access For Patients With Pre-Existing Conditions: We will expand state high-risk pools, reinsurance programs and reduce the cost of coverage. We will make it illegal for an insurance company to deny coverage to someone with prior coverage on the basis of a pre-existing condition, eliminate annual and lifetime spending caps, and prevent insurers from dropping your coverage just because you get sick. We will incentivize states to develop innovative programs that lower premiums and reduce the number of uninsured Americans.

• Permanently Prohibiting Taxpayer Funding of Abortion: We will establish a government-wide prohibition on taxpayer funding of abortion and subsidies for insurance coverage that includes abortion, this includes enacting into law what is known as the Hyde Amendment. We will also enact into law conscience protections for doctors, nurses and hospitals.

4. We Will Restore Americans’ Trust in their Government By:

• Reading The Bill: We will ensure that bills are debated and discussed in the public square by publishing the text online for at least three days before coming up for a vote in the House of Representatives. No more hiding legislative language from the minority party, opponents, and the public. Legislation should be understood by all interested parties before it is voted on.

• Adhering To The Constitution: We will require each bill moving through Congress to include a clause citing the specific constitutional authority upon which the bill is justified.

• Making It Easier to Cut Spending: We will let any lawmaker — Democrat or Republican — offer amendments to reduce spending.

• Advancing Legislative Issues One at a Time: We will end the practice of packaging unpopular bills with “must-pass” legislation to circumvent the will of the American people and, instead, will advance major legislation one issue at a time.

5. We Will Secure Our Nation, including Its Borders, By:

• Passing Clean Troop Funding Bills: We will not allow troop funding bills held up by unrelated policy changes, or extraneous domestic spending and pork-barrel projects.

• Keeping Terrorists Out of America: We will prevent the government from importing terrorists onto American soil and hold President Obama and his administration responsible for any Guantanamo Bay detainees they release who return to fight against our troops or who have become involved in any terrorist plots or activities.

• Demanding an Overarching Detention Policy: We will oppose all efforts to force our military, intelligence, and law enforcement personnel operating overseas to extend “Miranda Rights” to foreign terrorists.

• Fully Funding Missile Defense: We will work to ensure critical funding is restored to protect the U.S. homeland and our allies from missile threats from rogue states such as Iran and North Korea.

• Requiring Tough Enforcement of Sanctions Against Iran: We will work to ensure the government aggressively and effectively implements the sanctions tools Congress has provided.

• Establishing Operational Control of the Border: We will ensure that the Border Patrol has the tools and authorities to establish operational control at the border and prohibit the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture from interfering with Border Patrol enforcement activities on federal lands.

• Working with State and Local Officials to Enforce Our Immigration Laws: We will reaffirm the authority of state and local law enforcement to assist in the enforcement of all federal immigration laws.

• Strengthening Visa Security: To stop terrorists, we will require the Department of Homeland Security to review all visa applications at high-risk consular posts and prevent aliens from attempting to avoid deportation after having their visas revoked.

Let’s see if our House Republican “leaders” can formulate some Jesse Kelly-ish talking points to convince the America people that they will actually fight for our liberties.

Maybe they might have had an incentive to do so if, in their respective congressional districts, they had seen conservative registered Republicans flocking in droves into the local monthly GOP committee meetings to become precinct committeemen — giving those “mere” registered Republicans full voting rights INSIDE the Party and putting them in the BEST position to help GOTV for the best conservative candidates in the all-important, traditionally-very-low-turnout primary elections. And, thereby, potentially threatening their re-election chances.

Maybe that influx will happen in the 2010 election cycle.

Or maybe we are all too darn busy doing other stuff. I guess the Dark Ages weren’t that bad.

For Liberty,
ColdWarrior, PC (that’s “precinct committeeman,” not “political child!”)
Conservatives, UNITE! CHANGE the Republican Party and save the world by UNITING INSIDE the Party as precinct committeemen. NOW! (40 days until Nov. 2 — what are YOU DOING to help get out the vote in your precinct?)
———–
American first, conservative second, Republican precinct committeeman BY NECESSITY!

ThePrecinctProject, so you can say, “I became a precinct committeeman before it was cool.” Where it all started.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
- Edmund Burke

The Concord Project: Fighting for Freedom in the Fall