Recently, I reported on Kay Bailey Hutchison’s broken promises.  How she stated:

“I’ve always said that I would serve no more than two full terms. This may be my last term or I could run for one more. But no more after that. I firmly believe in term limitations and I plan to adhere to that.”

–1994, Austin American Statesman

Now she is running for a third term, this election.

Unfortunately, Senator Hutchison was not the only elected official to break a major promise from the 104th congress and beyond.  The Republican party has also broken a major promise.  A contract.  The Contract With America.

The Contract With America was written largely by Rep. Dick Armey, and in part from former President Reagan’s 1985 State of the Union address.  The contract details actions that the Republicans promised to take upon become the majority party in the House of Representative.  The Contract was signed by all but two of the Republican members of the House, and all of the Party’s non-incumbent Republican Congressional candidates. (paraphrased from Wikipedia)

The text of the Contract remains, today, on the U.S. House of Representatives’ website.  You can read the full text of the Contract, here.

To this day, Republicans are claiming the contract was a success.  To a very minor extend, it was.  No promises were made that any proposed legislation would become law… The legislation only needed to be introduced to fulfill the Contract.

Unfortunately, as Vince at Capitol Annex points out:

[T]he fact remains that the “contract” was really a deceptive document. The GOP made promises. Some of those promises were delivered on but the “reforms” of the Contract With America necessary for the GOP to deliver on its promises have been either devastating to America or have had little or no impact on the areas of law and public policy they were designed to revolutionize.

I’m going to give you a run-down of some of the contract’s provisions, and explanations on how the Contract has been broken - sometimes time and time again.  This isn’t short, but it is informative.

The items blockquoted in italics, below, are quoted directly from the contract…

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;

Vince states that it appears that the Republicans have not done well with this.  Although I am waiting on the final verdict, I’ll use Tom DeLay as an example.  DeLay and his supporters in the House continue to act (and speak) as if DeLay has done nothing wrong, despite the indictment in Travis county, and the fact that he may be a target of the Abramoff investigation.  It’s not even the fact that they act as if DeLay has done nothing wrong, they are defending his actions.  The prudent
course would be to neither voice approval, or disapproval, and wait for the verdict.

Although using DeLay as an example is swinging on a vine, one still does not need to sniff out too many squirrels to get the understanding that the Republicans in Congress are stalling on the ethics issue.  Whether this is because they don’t believe they need it (as is my opinion), or not, doesn’t matter.  The fact that they are not seeing through something that would go a long way to fulfilling a portion of the contract is enough.

SECOND, select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of Congress for waste, fraud or abuse;

and…

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.

Fiscal Responsibility.  In 1994, I was still in high school, and taking little interest in politics; thus, I knew little about the contract until I read it.  When I read the above, I nearly choked on my diet pepsi.

Waste… Fraud… Abuse…

What about last-minute riders to bills that would fund their pet (”pork”) projects, or make special changes in laws.  OFTEN, the things tacked onto a bill have NOTHING to do with the original purpose of the bill.  A perfect example?  Nine months after the Contract, a budget bill failed to pass congress because the Republicans loaded it with abortion-related amendments.

What in the hell happened to fiscal responsibility?  The Republicans have eaten away at the surplus built during the Clinton administration, and are currently forcing on the nation the largest federal budgets, and the largest deficits the nation has EVER seen.  The debt has been allowed to bloom to 9 TRILLION DOLLARS (that’s $9,000,000,000,000).  First Congress
set a new debt limit of that amount, then the President (Bush) signed the stupid bill.

What happened to fiscal responsibility?

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.

$10.5 billion for state prison construction grants was awarded by Congress.  In Texas, our prisons are already bursting at the seams.  After Congress “reformed” (and I use that term very loosely) the habeas corpus appeals process - effectively shutting the courthouse doors to many wrongfully convicted persons - the non-violent offender population in the prisons sky-rocketed.  Oh, the reform was only the start.  The Contract’s mandatory minimum sentence legislation was the straw, the cymbal,
the icing.  With that, the prisons built by that $10.5 billion have already become overly full.

Furthermore, what about the Bush and Republican budget proposals that affect our police, firefighters, port and border security, and aviation security!  In one cast, the House - the people who CREATED the Contract - wanted to cut even more from those programs than the President did.  Examples?

One Bush budget cut first-responder funds within the Department of Homeland Security by over half a BILLION dollars ($648 million).

Nearly ONE BILLION DOLLARS was cut from state and local law enforcement programs. ($959 million - this included the gutting of Clinton’s successful COPS program that put 100,000 additional officers on the streets.)

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.

Congress transferred “welfare” to a block grant system.  In this system, the federal government gives states blocks of money.  The states then distribute it under their own legislation and criteria.  Sounds good, right?  Well… perhaps not…  Let’s use Texas as an example…

The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) is an excellent way to show the breach of the Contract, and how block grants can go horribly wrong.  From a website on the University of Texas System:

The initial CHIP program offered to pay for health insurance for children of families earning up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL), but states could choose any level of family income up to the limit. They also have wide latitude in how the funds are distributed, including funding local health clinics.

When - in 1999 - then Texas Governor, George W. Bush and the Texas Legislature considered the CHIP program, Texas agreed to fund the program for households up to only 150% of the FPL.  About half a million Texas children (then).

Unfortunately, Republicans, and Bush - who was looking towards the White House, and didn’t want to be saddled with signing a massive “welfare” program into law - wanted to shut the door on the program to even more Texans by lowering the percentage of the FPL even more.

Because of problems with in the Republican-led administration, Texas was one of at least 40 states who had to give back a large portion of its CHIP dollars.

In 2003, the Texas Legislature cut CHIP funding by $200 million, causing over 150,000 Texas kids to lose coverage.  At the same time, the state added $295 million to a business growth slush fund, to create a larger corporate welfare program in Texas.

…If taking money from children and giving it to multi-billion dollar corporations (many on the Fortune 100 list) isn’t a good example of breaking the Contract, I don’t know what is.

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.

…Well blow me down… one of the biggest blunders in the Contract - which I didn’t realize until I was informed - was the addition of MILLIONS of dollars to the federal budget to fund block grants for abstinence education.  As you may remember, I did an article on the massive funding for abstinence education, and how it simply does. not. work.  Want even more proof?  Take
a look at MSNBC’s commentary on the subject:

Despite taking courses emphasizing abstinence-only themes, teenagers in 29 high schools became increasingly sexually active, mirroring the overall state trends, according to the study conducted by researchers at Texas A&M University.

From a related story:

The study showed about 23 percent of ninth-grade girls, typically 13 to 14 years old, had sex before receiving abstinence education. After taking the course, 29 percent of the girls in the same group said they had had sex.

Boys in the tenth grade, about 14 to 15 years old, showed a more marked increase, from 24 percent to 39 percent, after receiving abstinence education.

Failed. Failed. Failed.  Why not try some REAL sex education?  I understand that Republicans claim to hold family values at the fore-front; however, almost every family I speak with, today, agrees that abstinence-only sex education is insane.  Certainly, they believe abstinence should be taught; but, they all agree that safe sex, birth control, and disease prevention should be taught as well, as a back-up for when the kids and teens don’t listen to the abstinence portion.  While I haven’t
done a formal study on this, I can tell you that over the course of the past year, I’ve spoken with members of over fifty families on the subject…  All agree that some sort of safe-sex education is paramount, today.  How is it family values by ignoring the safety of your children?

I won’t get into detail about the Republican’s continued attack on gay/lesbian lifestyles - despite  the fact that many gays and lesbians have very strong and loving family units.

THE AMERICAN DREAM RESTORATION ACT: A S500 per child tax credit, begin repeal of the marriage tax penalty, and creation of American Dream Savings Accounts to provide middle class tax relief.

If you’re single and think you pay too much in taxes, thank the American Dream Restoration Act.  In order to cut the marriage penalty, the Republican’s required single adults to pay more in taxes than married couples.

THE JOB CREATION AND WAGE ENHANCEMENT ACT: Small business incentives, capital gains cut and indexation, neutral cost recovery, risk assessment/cost-benefit analysis, strengthening the Regulatory Flexibility Act and unfunded mandate reform to create jobs and raise worker wages.

We’ve gone more than a decade since an increase in the federal minimum wage… During that decade the cost of living has gone up, time and time again.

Add to that that since the last minimum wage increase for Americans, Congress has received several pay increases.

Now I’m not going to bother posting a further summary… I’ve gone on too long.  Yes, I’ve left out a LOT of portions of the contract.  Why?  Because I’ve paraphrased much of what Vince Leibowitz has said in his post on the subject.  If you want further takes on this, and many many more examples (including on the portions I didn’t touch), please go read his
well-researched post.

Technorati Tags: Contract With America, George Bush, Republicans, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican Party, GOP

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