A New Contract With America

It has been a good month to be a Republican but there is more work to do. After the November 2009 victories in Virginia and New Jersey, independents have continued fleeing from the Democrat party with the recent election of Scott Brown as the junior Senator from Massachusetts. The Democrat Party version of Health Care Reform is now dead and the Supreme Court has repealed a portion of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform (guaranteed incumbent re-election) law. Freedom is on the march.

These independents, however, will demand that the Republicans give them something other than opposition to the Democrats in power. If the Republicans fail to provide their own solutions to the economy and health care, then the pendulum will swing just as quickly back to the Democrats. Many have likened the recent GOP electoral victories to the 1994 midterm elections. There is a fundamental difference, however—in 1994 the GOP had more than opposition to the Democrats, they had the Contract with America.

The GOP today needs an equally ambitious legislative agenda to keep the independents in their camp. I'd propose the following:

1) A return to "pay-go" and a balanced budget amendment. End deficit spending.

2) Make the Bush tax cuts permanent

3) Market-based health care reform that puts the brakes on out-of-control health care costs, reforms the medical malpractice system, and allows the purchase of policies across state lines. The GOP must offer its own version of health care reform that addresses the cost issue because pretty soon, health care policies are going to get unaffordable for middle class families.

4) Term limits on members of congress and senators.

This is a simple but ambitious agenda that independents can get behind. The GOP cannot squander this opportunity.