The Ideals That Bind Conservatives
The First Principle: The Principle Of The People And Money
There is no division between the government's money and the people's money. It is all the people's money. It must therefore be taxed at the lowest rate possible, in as simple a manner as possible and spent as sparingly as possible.
The Second Principle: The Principle Of Power
Our military will be the finest and most powerful in the world. We will use it only with the greatest of discretion. When we elect to fight, it must be with only our own security interests in mind and with overwhelming force to a victorious conclusion.
The Third Principle: The Principle Of Integrity
We will not stand corruption in our public officials. Those who do not meet the highest standards of ethics will be asked to step down from leadership posts or resign their offices, even if only an appearance of impropriety exists.
The Fourth Principle: The Principle Of Life
While we may argue over the relative merits and failings of Roe V. Wade, we believe unequivically that every abortion stops a beating heart and that while we must care for all mothers in need, we must use all the moral powers at our persuasion to make abortion an event that occurs only when there is no other choice.
The Fifth Principle: The Principle Of The Law
The law is the law and it applies with equal force to absolutely everyone. White or black, rich or poor, Republican or Democrat, immigrant or citizen. Whether it be criminal law, civil law or immigration law, it applies the same to everyone, or it means nothing.
The Sixth Principle: The Principle Of Sovereignty
The foreign and domestic policies of the United States will be determined by the legitimate security and economic interests of the United States and will never be subservient to the desires of the United Nations or any other international body. The same applies to the right of the United States citizens and vessels to move freely on the high seas, skies and near Earth and deep space including the Moon and other bodies.
The Seventh Principle: The Principle Of Equality
All Americans are equal and should be treated as such. No person should derive any advantage due to gender, race, creed or sexual orientation. In all matters of law, opportunity and life, we will be a color blind, gender blind, faith blind and sexual orientation blind society.
The Eighth Principle: The Principle Of Faith
The government has no right to intervene in the practice and institutions of religion. The various religious faiths shall have the exclusive right to determine who may be admitted, baptized, married or ex-communicated. The government may only intervene when the public health, well-being or order is threatened.
The Ninth Principle: The Principle Of Opportunity
Every person in need is deserving of a hand up. But never a hand out. A culture of welfare dependency must be resisted because it is addictive and destroys the will to work and produce for society. A healthy society is based not on dependency, but upon opportunity.
The Tenth Principle: The Principle Of The Constitution
The role of the courts is to interpret the law as passed by Congress. While the courts are obligated to destroy that law which is not in compliance with the requirements of our Constitution, it must never usurp the power of the legislature and create law on its own. The Constitution in turn was written in the simplest of language, is the simplest governing law in the world and must be interpreted as its relevant components are written, not as our personal politics might desire.
The Eleventh Principle: The Principle Of Security
The first duty of the government is to provide security to the people. Abroad, terrorist organizations and their state sponsors are indistinguishable from each other. Domestically, the borders of the United States will be defended, regulated and controlled. We will welcome immigrants to our nation with open arms, but they must enter the United States in a manner that is in compliance with our laws. Those who do not should be punished in accordance with our laws.
The Twelfth Principle: The Principle Of The Frontier
We are a nation of explorers. When we cease to explore, we give up a huge part of our national soul. From the polar ice caps, to the depths of the sea, to low Earth orbit, the Moon and beyond we will always maintain a robust presence at the frontier of the unknown and to make it into the known. Once there, we will be responsible stewards of what we discover. We will protect our land, sea and air and make decisions about our environment based only upon sound science, never upon the politically correct motivations of current politics.
The Thirteenth Principle: The Principle Of The Family
Raising a child does not take a village, it takes a family. The family must be emphasized in all social policy, including the power to make critical choices for the future of their children. The most important choice of all is how the children will be educated. In keeping with the First Principle, a family must be able to use their tax money to educate their children as they see fit, especially if local schools are failing.
The Fourteenth Principle: The Principle Of Politics
We are Americans first. We will never speak ill of our opponents, whether within the party or the opposition. While our opponent's ideas, judgments and qualifications are subject to debate and challenge, we will never rob our opponents of their dignity or demean their patriotism. We are conservatives and we do not need to.
Manifesto
A Plan To Renew America's Party Of Ideas And Innovation By Applying Our Conservative Principles To 21st Century Problems
The Blog Of Michael P. Borgia
In 1980, Ronald Reagan went to a dispirited nation and dared it to rediscover its greatness by applying conservative principles to the problems that liberalism had beset it with. His message resonated with the American people in a simple, yet powerful agenda message. Cut the spending, cut the taxes, grow the economy and balance the budget. Renew our military strength and replace the policy of containment of communism with the objective of defeating it. The liberal elites scoffed at Reagan's message. They accused him of being a lightweight, proposing simple solutions to problems of great complexity. But Reagan's message carried the day and he swept into office in a massive landslide. And once the American people saw the results of the change he brought, he was returned for a second term in an even greater electoral avalanche. Reagan ended the Epoch of Liberalism and replaced it with a conservative one.
In the early 1990's, Bill Clinton thought his 43% plurality victory over the split conservative opposition was a license to weaken Reagan conservatism. Newt Gingrich thought differently and as the incoming Republican leader in 1994 challenged the American people to support an agenda based on the prinicples of Reagan conservatism but tailored to the challenges of the mid 1990's. And the American people responded by sweeping out massive Democratic majorities that had held sway for a generation, replacing them with young conservative leaders that set the nation on course to realize Reagan's dream of balancing the federal budget for the first time since 1969. Gingrich's agenda was cleverly marketed under a simple title...the Contract With America. Gingrich promised that in the first 100 days of a Republican House majority to hold votes on ten key legislative items. He never promised to pass anything, just to hold votes. In fact, Gingrich got half the Contract With America signed into law, a remarkable political achievement considering that the Senate leadership did not sign on to the Contract.
In the early '90's, as they are today the elite liberal media proclaimed the death of the Republican Party. But a party that produces ideas the way the Republican Party does can never be dead. It may fall out of favor from time to time because people don't like getting their cage rattled by politicians actually trying to change things. They can talk about change. Barack Obama talked about it incessantly for two years. But he never told anyone what "change" meant. George W. Bush actually tried to legislate change...on social security and immigration reform. He paid the political price for thinking too far ahead of what a complacent people were ready for.
The American people are no longer complacent. They are aware that their nation and economy are in trouble, facing challenges on numerous fronts. And they are ready for leaders who will apply principles they share in common to our nation's problems without sloganeering or technobabble. So for the Republican Party, it is time to fashion a new message for a new time, but based on the principles that have united the party's membership since the days of Lincoln. So for the campaigns of 2010 and 2012, the Daily Borg presents An American Manifesto. This ten point agenda spells out how we can advance common sense solutions that will and have resonated with the American people for the past three decades. We may not win the first time or even the second. But the more the people see liberalism fail, the more they will listen to us and give our ideas a chance to succeed, the way they did in the 1980's.
The American Manifesto proposes ten items of legislation that the next Republican majority of the House of Representatives pledges to hold votes on within one hundred days of taking office on the first Tuesday of January, 2011. Four of these are amendments to the constitution, which will require a two-thirds majority to pass. Of the other six, one is a major tax reform bill that can and should be passed under reconciliation rules, avoiding the obstacle of a Senate fillibuster. The other five will require sixty votes to pass in the Senate. Since the Senate will almost certainly remain under Democratic control in 2011, even if the Republicans win a massive landslide, very little of the Manifesto will have a chance in the Senate. But the grounds for the 2012 campaign will be laid there, when Democrats will be at an overwhelming disadvantage. Let's look at the manifesto, item by item.
H.R. 1-The Balanced Budget Amendment:The Balanced Budget Amendment will require that the federal budget be brought into balance within five years of ratification of the amendment by the required thirty-eight states. It will then be maintained in balance unless deficit spending, never to exceed three percent of GDP is authorized by a two-thirds majority of both chambers. Such authority must be renewed each year. The only exception shall be in the event that Congress declares a state of war. To prevent Congress from using that power to deficit spend during peace time, after one year, the Supreme Court shall have the power to rule upon the validity of the state of war and enforce the provisions of the amendment. This will prevent liberals from one day declaring war against "global warming" or some such other real or imagined threat so that they may deficit spend.
To assist the president in maintaining the budget in balance and to prevent wasteful earmarking or pork barrel spending the amendment will forbid the practice of earmarking and will forbid any non-germaine amendment from being added to a spending bill. The president will also regain a power he held briefly in the 1990's, that of the line item veto. The Supreme Court ruled this to be unconstituional when the Republicans passed it fourteen years ago, so an amendment is required.
The amendment will also require that the Congress pass the budget on time. Failure to do so will result in the most recent balanced budget bill for that department being renewed at the previous year's level, adjusted for inflation. The Democratic Congress in the first two years of its current majority passed only two of twenty-two budget bills on time. Faced with having a budget written for them automatically, Congress will move with much greater efficiency.
The amendment is needed because many previous legislative fixes to the budgetary process have failed because Congress always leaves itself the option to short circuit the process. Republicans tried with Gramm-Rudman. Democrats gave us the farce of "pay-go." None have worked because none have had teeth. This will work because it will have the enforcable power of our Constitution behind it.
H.R. 25-The FairTax Act Of 2011:To balance our budget while honoring our obligations to our aging population under Medicare and Social Security will require more that simple reform of the existing tax code. And the promises that the current administration is proposing to make to all Americans threatens us with absolute financial ruin because our archaic income tax system cannot generate enough economic growth to in turn create the revenue needed to honor all those promises. The FairTax among its many other benefits is a massive growth engine that will boost our economy like a Saturn V on steroids. It will allow us to honor all our promises and acheive many of our cherished social goals without bankrupting the treasury.
Because the FairTax ends all other forms of taxation in America, it also serves another critical function. It will bring an end to the massive lobbying industry on K Street in Washington D.C. Most of the activity that we so rightfully demonize is centered around the ability of the lobbyists to affect the tax code to the benefit of their clients. So putting them out of business once and for all, the FairTax is also the most important ethics reform law put before Congress in generations.
H.R. 2-The Declaration Of Energy Independence:This bill shall consist of this simple statement: "The importation of oil into the United States from any nation not engaged in a free trade agreement with the United States shall cease effective five years from the date this legislation shall become law."
This shall force the United States to immediately begin development of its own domestic resources, including off shore oil and shale oil in the Rocky Mountains. The world's largest oil reserve lies in the loose shale of the upper Rocky Mountains as well as the tar sands of Canada. Since Canada is engaged in a free trade agreement with the United States, Canadian imports can continue. And if the Arabs wish to ever sell the world's largest energy consumer another drop of oil after the Declaration takes effect, they will have to open their markets to our products and by fiat, their cultures to our influence. And once the influence of freedom and liberty infiltrate these nations it will have an effect that can never be stopped.
For more, see our July 4, 2008 article on the Declaration of Energy Independence on the Archives Page.
H.R. 3-The Defense Of Marriage Amendment: In the late 1990's, Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed into law the Defense Of Marriage Act. This law allows states that do not allow gay marriage to not recognize or confer the benefits of marriage on any couple married in a state that does allow gay marriage. But its constituional bonafides are in question because the commerce clause of the United States Constitution. This essentially requires that any state honor any privilege or contract granted under the law of another state. No major challenge to the Defense Of Marriage Act has yet appeared, but if it does, then any gay couple from Utah or California can travel to Massachusetts and be married. Then their state, where they could not be legally married would be forced to recognize their marriage. An amendment to the Constituion is therefore required to protect citizens in states that do not wish to permit such marriages.
To those conservatives who claim that the issue is divisive, we must remind them that the only division is between the courts and the people. When gay marriage is advanced in legislatures and in courts, it wins. But when it is advanced in popular votes, it always loses. Even in the nation's most liberal states, like California it loses. For conservatives who seek to shy from social issues, that makes this issue a winner because it brings the Rel-Cons on board with the Manifesto.
H.R. 4-Congressional Term Limits Amendment: When a new member of the House or Senate arrives on Capitol Hill, with very few exceptions they begin to concentrate on one goal and that is to perpetuate themselves in office. But our founding fathers never intended for members of Congress to serve in perpetuity. They intended for good Americans to come to the Capitol, serve for a time, then return home to allow others to serve. The thought of politicians serving a lifetime in Congress, accruing power to themselves and avoiding taking stands on critical issues that might threaten that power base never occurred to them. Otherwise they would have included this passage in the Constituion.
The amendment would limit all members of the House serving at the opening of the first Congress after the amendment is ratified to no more than two four year terms. The House would be staggered by setting half of the members in two year terms for one cycle, so that half of the members will then face re-election each two years. In exchange for serving the short term, those members would be eligible to serve ten years in the House. And once in full effect, no member would face re-election more than once. This will free members of the fear of repeatedly facing the voters. It will break the cycle of House members having to endlessly raise money. And it reduces the value of the seats, since being a member of Congress will no longer be a lifetime job. And since members will have less fear of lobbyists, since they're leaving in eight years no matter what, it will allow members of Congress to focus on what they are there to do, rather than on themselves.
Members of the Senate would also be affected. Each Senator will be limited to two full terms beginning at the time his next full term begins. So a member who had been re-elected two years prior to the amendment taking effect could serve sixteen years in the Senate. Once in full effect, no Senator may serve more than twelve years. And overall, no individual may serve in the Congress more than twenty (eight in the House, twelve in the Senate) years. Shouldn't that be enough for anybody?
Bill H.R. 5-The Student's Bill Of Rights:This idea is built around one simple premise in the Fourteen Principles, that money that is spent on schools is not the government's money. And it is not to be used in social engineering. It is the people's money. And when it comes to schools, its the parent's money. And parents should have the ultimate power to decide where their child goes to school. If a school is deemed to be failing, as determined under the provisions of No Child Left Behind, then the parents of a child in that school should have the right to send their child anywhere they want. A private school, a parochial school, a charter school or even home schooling if that's what parents want. Such voucher programs have been conclusively proven to be effective for such children wherever they have been tried. They have been stifled from spreading however by teacher's unions, who seem to believe that the primary function of a public school is to provide their members with jobs. The Student's Bill of Rights will also renew permanently the testing provisions of No Child Left Behind and expand its testing scope to cover the sciences and social studies, not just math and reading as at present. These two provisions will give parents the weapons they need to ensure their child is learning and to monitor their progress.
Bill H.R. 6-The Federal Judges Tenure Amendment: This addition to the the United States Constitution would modify the provision that allows judges to serve in "good behavior", that is essentially for life. But judges have in the past two generations become much too willing to use that provision that lifts them beyond the power of Congress to remove them to become unelected legislators that can summarily overrule the other two branches of government on a whim. The Tenure Amendment would require judges to serve a term of ten years, then be brought back before the United States Senate for an up or down vote on lifetime tenure. The judge need not be renominated by the President. If the Senate then denies lifetime tenure, the president would fill the vacancy per the normal constitutional process. All federal judges presently on the bench would be subject to vote with a ten year clock beginning to run on the day the amendment is ratified by the states. Judges would then have to show that they are willing to abide by the powers and limitations imposed upon them by our Constitution, or they could be removed relatively easily. This would go a long way towards reducing the practice of "legislating from the bench."
Bill H.R. 7-The Medical Tort Reform Act Of 2011: All the rage this summer in Congress is about the Democrats desperate attempt to get universal health insurance legislation passed before the summer recess. But no legislation proposed as yet does anything to control health care costs, the very heart of the crisis. And the biggest problem forcing medical care costs to rise as they have is the cost of dealing with lawsuits. Most medical lawsuits are frivoulous, but they take up a great deal of time and money. And those costs are inevitably passed along to the consumer in the form of rapidly escalating premiums. The Medical Tort Reform Act is based on the last legislative attempt to corral such costs, that made by President George H.W. Bush in 1992. Bush proposed creating a system of benchmarks, which if a doctor could demonstrate he has met in treating a particular disease, he would be legally immune from lawsuit. The heavily Democratic Congress of that time would have nothing to do with anything that curtailed lawyers' income. And no one since has made any effort to contain tort action. But until it is, any effort at universal coverage will drown under the enormous cost of lawsuits. And lawsuits will expand exponentially once universal coverage is in place.
Bill H.R. 8-The Government Services Privatization Act Of 2011: This legislation would take the management of Social Security, Medicare and every other service provided by the federal government and place it under private management, to be owned and run by the private sector. The private sector businesses would compete with each other to provide services to the government and its customers at the best rate and with the best quality. That's the way America works best. The Space Shuttle program for example is run entirely by the private sector owned United Space Alliance. They have done a remarkable job controlling costs, increasing safety and improving overall performance. They got NASA out of the business of being a service provider and made them into a customer. A simpler example is the process of licensing pilots by the FAA. The FAA in fact does not conduct any certificate or rating examinations on its own anymore (with the exception of initial issuances of Flight Instructor certificates). It is entirely done by private examiners designated by the FAA to conduct the service for them. It relieves the FAA of an enormous work load and allows private examiners to earn fantastic money conducting flight tests for fees. The government provides services best when it ceases to be a service provider and instead purchases services from the private sector. And the private sector in turn makes money in mind numbing quantities.
Bill H.R. 9-The Tenth Amendment Restoration Act Of 2011:The Congress has over the past two hundred years eroded the Tenth Amendment almost to the point of irrelevance. The last article of the Bill Of Rights states that those powers not specifically assigned the Federal Government or denied to the states are reserved to the states. But the past one hundred years in particular, since the emergence of the New Deal have seen Congress and presidents erode the power of the states year by year via the imposition of unfunded mandates. These are programs that the federal government requires states to subscribe to without giving the states the money to run them. This in turn forces states to raise taxes or cut other spending at local levels to pay for projects mandated by the Federal Government. This act will forbid that practice and require that the federal government fund in perpetuity all mandates it imposes upon the states. Any mandate for which funding is rescinded by Congress, will no longer be obligatory on the states. This will go a long way towards restoring the balance of power between federal and state governments and ease the budget crunches of many states.
Ten points of action. Ten pieces of legislation. Each specifically aimed at a problem that is undermining our Constituion and our freedoms. Each deserving a vote in the next Republican Congress. Each unites the various factions of our party in accordance with our principles. Each restores to our government the supports on which it is built. To grow our economy. To rid our government of corruption. To emphasize the power of the people over that of the government. Beginning in 2010, the American people must rise up and take our country back from the special interests and corrupt oligarchy that has overtaken it these past two elections. These ten planks are how I believe we make a start.