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;
SECOND, select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of Congress for waste, fraud or abuse;
THIRD, cut the number of House committees, and cut committee staff by one-third;
FOURTH, limit the terms of all committee chairs;
FIFTH, ban the casting of proxy votes in committee;
SIXTH, require committee meetings to be open to the public;
SEVENTH, require a three-fifths majority vote to pass a tax increase;
EIGHTH, guarantee an honest accounting of our Federal Budget by implementing zero base-line budgeting.
Thereafter, within the first 100 days of the 104th Congress, we shall bring to the House Floor the following bills, each to be given full and open debate, each to be given a clear and fair vote and each to be immediately available this day for public inspection and scrutiny.

1. 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. (Bill Text) (Description)

2. 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. (Bill Text) (Description)

3. 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. (Bill Text) (Description)

4. 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. (Bill Text) (Description)

5. 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. (Bill Text) (Description)

6. THE NATIONAL SECURITY RESTORATION ACT: No U.S. troops under U.N. command and restoration of the essential parts of our national security funding to strengthen our national defense and maintain our credibility around the world. (Bill Text) (Description)

7. THE SENIOR CITIZENS FAIRNESS ACT: Raise the Social Security earnings limit which currently forces seniors out of the work force, repeal the 1993 tax hikes on Social Security benefits and provide tax incentives for private long-term care insurance to let Older Americans keep more of what they have earned over the years. (Bill Text) (Description)

8. 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. (Bill Text) (Description)

9. THE COMMON SENSE LEGAL REFORM ACT: “Loser pays” laws, reasonable limits on punitive damages and reform of product liability laws to stem the endless tide of litigation. (Bill Text) (Description)

10. THE CITIZEN LEGISLATURE ACT: A first-ever vote on term limits to replace career politicians with citizen legislators. (Description)

Further, we will instruct the House Budget Committee to report to the floor and we will work to enact additional budget savings, beyond the budget cuts specifically included in the legislation described above, to ensure that the Federal budget deficit will be less than it would have been without the enactment of these bills.

Respecting the judgment of our fellow citizens as we seek their mandate for reform, we hereby pledge our names to this Contract with America.

Everything I have read about him, including a detailed look at his voting record, would indicate that he is a principled fiscal and social conservative. More so than most in the Senate, including most Republicans.

Granted, he has consistently opposed Bush/Rumsfeld/Cheney on their reasons for and their handling of the occupation in Iraq. However, events on the ground in Iraq over the last two years show that Hagel was spot-on in this criticism. Is his position on Iraq the only reason for his “big negatives” with the Right? Or am I missing something?

Got news for you, Benn (a.k.a., Been had by liberal lies): If we, conservatives, have moved any in the last ten or twenty years, it’s been ever so slightly to the left, not to rightist extremism. Check out where the conservatives were in 1986, policy-for-policy, then check out where the “moderate” left was the same year. You’ll find the extreme movement has been from the left to the fringes, while the right is painted as having moved to the right fringe. Nothing less truthful could be told.

Face it, it is your kind, full of wishful thinking and warped beliefs about the ability of humanity as a whole to conform to your ideas of acceptable human behavior that has pulled this country ever deeper into an abyss from which it may never withdraw, all in the names of “tolerance” (as intolerant a bunch I can’t imagine), “diversity” (which means if you don’t follow exactly what they tell you, you’re dead meat) and “unity” (we’ll teach your kids to snitch on you if you so much as question our indoctrinations or try to teach your own kids that they know better what’s good for them than we do).

Bottom line for your comment, Benn, is that you don’t have to say anything - Nancy, Ted, Howard, Harry and all the rest of the extremists have already said it for you. As a matter of fact, I’d be careful if I were you because you could end up uttering something as foolish as Kerry does every time he opens his mouth, but the “leadership” won’t be happy if you say something that’s foolish to them. Then you’ll have to be “re-educated” or banned from their ranks. That is what they do, isn’t it?

And you think we’re Nazis!