Mark Davis: Here's a better 12-point pledge to start

Here's a better 12-point pledge to start


Mark Davis
Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Instead of devoting today's space to reviewing the pleasant but basically underwhelming Republican "Pledge to America," I thought I'd offer the 12 promises I want made as evidence that the GOP has truly awakened to smell the coffee – or tea, as the case may be:

1 We will commit not merely to slowing the growth of government but to reducing its size, starting with federal agencies serving no constitutional purpose (such as Energy and Commerce) and scores of unnecessary independent agencies. All government will face annual zero-based budget review. We will ban earmarks, requiring projects to be funded through bills of their own. We flatly reject the perverse notion of "big-government conservatism."

2 We will fight for a flat tax rate of 17 percent, to be paid by absolutely everyone. Make 10 grand a year? Send $1,700. Make a million? Send $170,000. All citizens must have a stake in tax policy. We cannot have tax increases ignored by tens of millions because they do not actually pay income taxes. We reject the useless analysis of whose taxes go up or down under this system. It is the definition of linear fairness. If your taxes go down, you were paying too much. If they go up, you weren't paying enough.

3 We will soberly evaluate entitlement programs, recognizing that they are currently unfunded and bankrupt, necessitating telling many Americans they will not get some things they were expecting. We will expect those Americans to refrain from whining if we establish means testing or phase in a later retirement age. We will reject the coddling of endless welfare and jobless benefits for those who will not support themselves, using that money to care for the truly needy, who cannot.

4 We will completely repeal ObamaCare and establish health care reforms that focus on providers and patients with a minimum of government interference.

5 We will seek a return to the citizen legislature the founders envisioned by favoring term limits of 12 years in the House and Senate.

6 We will never again bail out banks or other industries. Freedom means the freedom to succeed or to fail. Failure brings the wisdom of lessons learned. No entity will ever be deemed "too big to fail." Anyone wishing to pitch in to prevent such failures may do so, but government will not.

7 We will commit ourselves to being proper stewards of the planet, but we maintain our rational skepticism of man-made global warming and refuse to strangle our economy on an altar of junk science.

8 We will fight the spread of judicial activism by voting against judges and justices who would ignore the Constitution in favor of enacting favored social agendas.

9 We will seek to win the war on terror by devoting less time to nation-building and more time to the forceful obliteration of al-Qaeda, the Taliban and all others who seek to kill us. We will gladly help rebuild any nation that subsequently becomes a reliable ally.

10 We will seek Middle East peace based on support for our ally Israel, but always hopeful for the development of Palestinian leadership untainted by terrorist leanings.

11 We will make clear that a nuclear Iran is unacceptable, and we will thwart it by any means necessary, with or without allies' help or U.N. approval.

12 With the full knowledge that the Constitution empowers the states to make their own laws regarding abortion and gay marriage, we will take sides in those states in favor of protecting the unborn and preserving unique legal recognition for marriage between one man and one woman.

There's more. But this is a starting point that more clearly illustrates the enormous tasks necessary to undo the damage done by the bad instincts of both parties.

Mark Davis is heard weekdays from 8:30 to 11 a.m. on WBAP News/Talk 820 AM and 96.7 FM in Dallas/Ft. Worth

I completely disagree with the solution proposed in #2. That will fix nothing. I can't count the number of times that playing with the extant tax code has been undone almost overnight. Not only that, but the solution does not address the inequities produced by the corporate income tax, payroll taxes, capital gains taxes, and the myriad other taxes that are manipulated by government to interfere in free markets, picking winners and losers for the sole purpose of the maintenance and expansion of government power. The only sane solution, if one is going to really do something about insanity of our current tax system, is to scrap it in its entirety along with the 16th Amendment and replace it with HR 25, the Fair Tax.

I knew you'd have an issue with that, knowing your position.