Contract with America II part 1

Following up on yesterdays manifesto post.

One of the reasons that the Republicans were able to take congress in 1992 was a clear vision that was outlined in the Contract with America. This document, initially proposed by Newt Gingrich, who is now considering a run for RNC chair, was a simple concise statement of what the GOP hoped to accomplish and gave people a reason to vote for them. We need something similar now and I think that we as a party should chose the 10 biggest problems facing America today and layout a clear vision for dealing with them.

I don't know what all 10 areas should be but I think I do know the first two.

Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Reduction

• Institute government wide performance audits to identify which programs and departments are working, identify problem and wasteful areas and suggest efficiencies and improvements.
• Return to zero based budgeting.
• Mandate a concentrated 10 year effort to pay down the national debt.

National Security Improvement

• Fully staff the FBI and CIA
• Return the Army to 18 Active Combat Divisions
• Establish a National Service Academy modeled modeled on West Point devoted to Foreign Service and Intelligence Officers. I know not everyone likes this idea but I think it has a lot of value.

I know these seem superficial but the idea is to keep things bite sized and easy to digest. Also two years is a fairly long time politically. Things could change I am just throwing out ideas based on conditions now.