Sucker Bait for America?

Let us all heave a gigantic, collective sigh for the new Contract From America. Almost rang the bell, but no cigar. It went to the full count of 3 and 2 and then it struck out. The basketball hit the rim, swirled around and popped back out. Yes, you remember the Contract with America from the 94 congressional elections? Newt Gingrich helped federalize the elections by helping create a “contract with America.” It helped to propel the Republican party to huge gains in the congressional elections that year. But, will the new ballyhooed "Contract From America" do the same?

Some of the individual points are not bad, but is the contract over all sucker bait? The balanced budget amendment, point three was in the '94 contract, but never passed because the only Republican senator who was retiring, and not worried about reelection, Hatfield of Oregon, voted the deciding vote against it. Was he castigated and called a traitor to the party by the Republican leadership? No, Newt Gingrich called him "courageous."

The other piece of sucker bait is point five, the blue ribbon commission. We've already been there, done that, with theGramm-Rudman Commission and the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act in 1986. It did absolutely no good in cutting waste and spending despite many good suggestions.

Still, it has many excellent planks which I support.

But, first I have a quibble. Point eight is an "all of the above" energy policy. Fine, as far as it goes. But, it should state the ultimate goal clearly. What we really want is a cheap, abundant energy policy. We want to light up our homes and the cities, and fire up our factories and bring back the Sunday after church drive in the country. And we want to disenfranchise the terrorist supporting oil sheiks at the same time. We can do it and have it all with drill, drill, drill, nuke, nuke, nuke, and break up, break up, break up the big energy monopolies.

But, then comes the big uh oh, is this really on the level? Where, oh where, is the plank on illegal immigration? Again, where, oh where is the plank on illegal immigration? You are kidding me. This is supposed to be a contract from the people and there is no mention of illegal immigration? When, depending on which poll you believe, 60-73 percent of the American people are opposed to illegal immigration yet somehow it doesn’t make it into the platform of a contract "from" America?

Also, why is there no mention of a full employment policy? When we have full employment wages go up, up, up. That’s why Alan Greenspan and the other elitists want you to be unemployed or underemployed. They want to keep you in line. They want you and your wife and your children to have less than you need to live on so they and their girlfriends can have more than they need to live on. Another advantage, when wages go up, up, up, then employers go berserk and start investing in research and development again, looking for labor saving devices, which means they have to hire tech workers who make higher salaries. Then they have to build and run factories to build the labor saving devices, which puts more people to work and means more people with money to buy stuff, which means more factories and more people working. Which means more people with money to buy stuff, which means more factories etc. etc. etc. And all that r &d will make us the leader in world trade and technology again.

But, you might say, they’ll build the factories overseas and do the r & d overseas so it won’t benefit us. Which leads us to the some more things that are missing from the contract from America. Where is the plank that says we’re going to end outsourcing of jobs, and also end the H1B visas that allow foreigners to come to America and work technical jobs at 1/3 the wages Americans make while American technical workers are unemployed or working at MacDonalds? There’s not one word about it in the platform.

And what about tariffs? You want to move your factory overseas? Fine. Leave. But when your goods come back to America they are going to face a tariff of anywhere from 40-50 percent. Will you be able to compete with the manufacturer who stayed home and put Americans to work?

And one final thing. The most important thing really. In it's opening statement on "Individual Freedoms," the contract states that our liberties are inherent and not granted by the government. Very good, but where then do they come from? In this most critical document do not tell me that a contract "from" the American people would ever turn it's back on God. God is the author of our liberties, and we will not regain them without hard, excruciating work, penance, prayer and repentance.

If you believe otherwise, then you really are a sucker.