House Conservatives Steer Course For Return to Limited Government

Human Events, Nov 15, 2004 by Pence, Mike

Make no mistake about it. When President Bush won his landslide reelection victory by more than three million votes, self-identified conservatives-who made up 34% of the electorate-were the margin of victory.

Buoyed by measures defending marriage on the ballot in 11 states, the volunteer foot soldiers of American conservatism overwhelmed the thousands of paid mercenaries of MoveOn.org and kindred organizations to send George W. Bush back to the White House with larger majorities in both the House and the Senate-a first for a wartime President since 1944.

Conservatives were right to support the significant conservative accomplishments of a President and Congress that defended freedom at home and abroad, promoted economic freedom through tax cuts and defended their moral freedom in the sanctity of life and marriage. The campaign became a referendum on conservative principles and, as pointed out in HUMAN EVENTS last week, the election was a mandate for conservative leadership in Washington.

Confident Hope

Now, the President and Congress must deliver on the confident hope of millions of American voters by restoring the luster to our reputation as the party of limited government. On this front, there is work to be done.

Earlier this year, in light of two consecutive sessions of Congress that saw a 52% increase in the Department of Education, the first new entitlement in 40 years and record increases in non-defense spending, I likened the conservative movement to a tall ship plying the open seas of a simpler time with a proud captain and a strong and accomplished crew, but veering off course into the dangerous and uncharted waters of big-government Republicanism.

Despite the enormous conservative achievements of the past four years, I saw troubling signs that the ship of conservative governance was off course.

While Ronald Reagan said famously, "Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem," many Republicans-even many who call themselves conservatives-had begun to see government as the solution to every social ill. This was a historic departure from the limited-government tradition of our party.

So how do we find our way forward in the uncertain currents of the new governing majority? How do we launch this new Congress with priorities that reflect our party's commitment to limited government?

Conservatives must dead reckon from the starting point of what we know to be true about the nature of government. We know that government that governs least governs best. We know as government expands, freedom contracts. We know that government should never do for a man what he can and should do for himself. And we know that liberty also means freedom from the unbridled growth of government and its attendant burdens of debt, escalating taxes and suffocating bureaucracy.

As we navigate off of these fixed truths, the way forward is clear: After four years of the largest growth in entitlement and discretionary spending in more than a half-century, we must rediscover the principles of limited government that brought our party to power in 1980 and 1994 and put them into practice. This requires that House conservatives have their own agenda, built on the principles of freedom, including not only what conservatives must do in the 109th Congress, but also what they must undo.

What Conservatives Must Do

First, House conservatives must rally support in Congress and the country for President Bush's agenda where it conforms to the ideals of limited government. The good news is that all of the "Big Three" items that the President outlined last week are worthy of vigorous conservative support. These include:

* Modernizing Social security by introducing the option of personal savings accounts for younger Americans. Members of the Republican Study Committee, including Representatives Paul Ryan (R.-Wis.), Sam Johnson (R.-Tex.) and Jeff Flake (R.-Ariz.) are already working on legislation to make this a reality.

* Overhauling the Internal Revenue Code without a tax increase to achieve a system that is simpler and fairer for taxpaying Americans. Representatives John Linder (R.-Ga.) and Mike Burgess (R.-Tex.) are leading in this area.

* Reforming the legal system to end the hidden tax that frivolous lawsuits place on our manufacturing and health care economies. Rep. John Shaddegg (R.-Ariz.) is sponsoring legislation to do just that.

These are President Bush's priorities and they deserve to be the priorities of conservatives in Washington. In addition to these "Big Three" goals, House conservatives should also put on green eyeshades and put our fiscal house in order. We can do this by:

* Additional tax cuts (as the Republican Congress has done every year since 1994) to ensure continued economic growth.

* The Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution, sponsored by Rep. Ernest Istook (R.-Okla.).

* Fundamental budget-process reform including a line item veto, like the proposal put forward by Representatives Jeb Hensarling (R.-Tex.) and Paul Ryan.