Biden Becomes Republican's Critic & Counselor

 

During his first press conference of 2022, Joe Bidden turned into a chief counsel for the Republican Party.  He started by accusing Republicans of not standing for anything and just being against everything, the party of “NO”.  It is an easy claim to make in front of a friendly media corps, especially when he would get no push back because he didn’t take any questions.  If he had been in a debate, he would have been crushed by his Republican opponent who would have delivered a long list of tantalizingly good policies they plan to pursue.  Joe also, unwittingly, revealed the Democrat plan to try to hold on to the House and Senate in the 2022 midterms.  They plan to paint the Republican Party as the party of no.  This gives plenty of time to prepare their campaign.  It’s the equivalent of giving Tom Brady two minutes and three timeouts in the fourth quarter to deliver a field goal to win the game.

There are actually a number of bills Republicans (conservatives) should not only talk about, but promise to pass and put on Joe’s desk in 2023.  Newt Gingrich’s 1994 Contract with America included 10 pieces of legislation that he would bring up if and when Republicans were at the helm.  He used the contract to position his party as the party that was fiscally responsible, pro-police and anti-criminal, and for welfare reform and lower taxes.  Newt’s Contract with America gained 54 seats in the House and 10 seats in the Senate and flipped both the House and the Senate from Democrat to Republican majorities which they maintained for the next 12 years. Interestingly, some of those issues are still important even today, but there are, in my opinion at least four areas that conservatives should focus on for 2022, and do so publicly and nationally.

Amazingly, I believe one of the biggest issues in this next election will be border security.  While President Trump made this a big issue in 2016 and did deliver much of his wall, it is clear that there is more to be done.  I believe the wall needs to be completed in strategic areas but given the record two million apprehensions and an estimated 600,000 got-aways this year it shows that the wall is not enough.  We need more technology and boots on the ground, but we must also eliminate “catch and release” and other incentives to cross illegally.  This is still a huge issue with Americans and even 50% of Hispanic Americans favor a secure border.

Any discussion on border security, however, should include a promise to address the millions of people still living here illegally.  According to Pew Research, 74% of Americans favor giving legal status for children brought here by their parents without their knowledge or consent (the DACA persons).  I believe we should offer them a path to citizenship, but whatever border security legislation becomes part of this new contract it needs to address hard working Hispanic Americans that are still living in the shadows in America.

Another plank for this new contract needs to be a pro-police, anti-crime piece of legislation.  While much of law enforcement is controlled at the state and local levels, there is still much that the federal government can to do help.  Interestingly enough, this was also a part of the Newt’s contract with America back in 1994.  The original contract promised more federal money that could ONLY be used to put more police on the streets and required harsher penalties for violent crimes.  The same could and should be promised today.

Next, the contract needs to be a pro-parent document.  Between local school boards and the Biden administration, parents today are under attack.  Two things finally put a spotlight on this issue.  First, the pandemic forced children into remote learning and parents finally saw for themselves what was being taught in schools and were shocked.  Then, Glenn Youngkin made parents’ rights a key topic of discussion in the Virginia Governor’s race.  He sided with parents vs the teachers’ unions and he won.  Then, Merrick Garland, Biden’s Attorney General, created a special task force to investigate parents who attended school board meetings at the behest of the NSBA (National School Boards Association).  This drew the line of demarcation in this battle.  The Democrat party was siding with the campaign money provided by teachers’ unions, and Republicans have chosen parents.  While money will always be important for politicians, there are WAY more parents in this country than teachers and I believe Republicans will be on the right side of history here.

Finally, Republicans should grasp the mantle of fiscal responsibly and promise to balance the budget and stop piling mountains of debt on to the backs of our children.  They are the ones who will have to pick up the tab for today’s mindless spending.  And I disagree with Nancy Pelosi who famously said that, “we don’t have a spending problem” in America.  She suggested that our government can tax its way out of our fiscal problems.  To cure our deficit spending disease, we will have to make some tough spending reduction decisions on discretionary spending like Defense and the size of government and even mandatory spending like Social Security and Medicare.  These cuts, however, are not just good ideas, they are unavoidable.

There could be other planks to this new Contract with America, but the important thing is that the Republican Party needs to become the party of promise, hope and action and not just the party of “no”.