Thursday, May 2, 2024

Who Led Congressional Republicans In Creating The Contract With America

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Revolutionize The Education System

There’s a new political party forming. See who’s behind it

COVID exposed the failures of our education system. Not at the fault of our teachers, but due to bad incentives and one-size-fits-all approaches.

We promise to give that power and those tax dollars back to you, your child and your child’s needs.

In turn, this will apply pressure to schools to perform, to educate, and to not deploy oppressive critical race theory. We also pledge to diminish federal government involvement in student loans, which has only promoted tuition prices to skyrocket over the years.

Priorities: Pass “school choice,” ban CRT, and end the Federal Department of Education and return that power to the States.


Violence At Home And Abroad

Attorney General Janet Reno played a much more public role than most attorney generals, beginning in the spring of 1993 with her controversial decision to lay siege to the compound of cult leader David Koresh in Waco, Texas. The compound caught fire during the government raid and ATF agents entered to find that over seventy of Koreshs followers had either been killed or committed suicide. Three years later, two domestic terrorists cited the raid as justification for a deadly attack on a federal building in Americas heartland.

Figure 14.3

The 1995 Oklahoma City bombing was the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil until the attacks on September 11, 2001.

Figure 14.4

Marines search a Mogadishu market for caches of hidden weapons prior to the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu that was popularized by the movie Black Hawk Down.


Figure 14.5

Following the Rwandan Genocide in 1994, many Hutus fled the country and sought safety in makeshift camps such as this refugee camp in nearby Zaire.

Figure 14.6

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin shakes hands with Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization in 1993. Many hoped this meeting and the Oslo Accords would lead to a peaceful settlement of the historic conflict between Palestinians and Israelis.

Figure 14.7


Democrats Lost A Long Hold On Congress

Democrats, meanwhile, characterized the plan as calling for radical changes and solutions that would make America worse off.

“They highlighted some of the more extreme elements and tried to show the damage it could cause to policies and institutions that had been in place for decades,” Teske says. “Some mocked it as the ‘Contract on America’not ‘with’as with a ‘hit job’ on the American people.”

And while Republicans won big at the ballot box that year, Teske says it was going to be a tough year for Democrats anyway, considering Clinton’s unpopularity, a weak economy and the history of midterms favoring the party not held by the president.

“But, the contract did show a coherent opposition plan that probably helped re-capture many of these seats,” he notes. “At the same time, pendulums do swing in American politics and after 60 years of pretty dominant Democratic control of both houses of Congress, there was probably going to be a change. But, it is probably fair to say that Gingrichs contract was in the right place, at the right time, for the Republican party.”

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A Spectacular Rise To Power And Stunning Fall From Grace

Gingrich won his first congressional race in 1978, proving that the third time was in fact the charm after falling short at the ballot box in 1974 and 1976.

After learning the ways of Washington, the former history professor penned the career-defining “Contract with America” a political sales pitch that helped sweep Republicans back into power after 40 years of Democratic rule, and provided the clout he needed to claim the speaker’s gavel.

The symbolic agreement featured 10 bills House Republicans pledged to put up for a vote in the 104th Congress if the general public returned them to power. The priorities included myriad tax cuts, cracking down on crime, slashing welfare programs, and imposing congressional term limits, among others.

His spectacular rise to power was matched only by Gingrich’s equally stunning fall from grace. In 1997 House members overwhelmingly voted to reprimand Gingrich making him the first speaker panned for unethical behavior for flouting federal tax laws and misleading congressional investigators about it. The disgraced leader, who admitted to the ethical lapse as part of a deal to quash inquiries into other suspect activities, also had to pay a historic $300,000 penalty.

Following a surprise loss of seats in the 1998 midterm election, Gingrich stepped down as speaker that November. He resigned from Congress in January 1999 and hasn’t held elected office anywhere since.


But that hasn’t stopped him from striving to reshape the entire world.

Jeffersons Plans To Improve The Urban Environment

Newt Gingrich

Nicholas Kings sketch of Thomas Jeffersons plans for Lombardy poplars to line Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the Presidents House in Washington, D.C., was sent in 1803 to Jefferson by Thomas Munrow , superintendent of the city of Washington. Jeffersons landscaping ideas were influenced by the elegant avenues and gardens in Paris and contemporary concepts that trees and plants would purify the air in cities.

Nicholas King. March 12, 1803. Manuscript sketch. Manuscript Division

Bookmark this item: //www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/jefffed.html#141

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Contrasting Procedures Of The Senate And The House

The order of business in the Senate is simpler than that of the House. While the procedure of both bodies is basically founded on Jeffersons Manual of Parliamentary Practice, the practices of the two bodies are at considerable variance. The order and privileged status of motions and the amending procedure of the two are at less variance than their method of calling up business. The business of the Senate is not divided into classes as a basis for their consideration, nor are there calendar days set aside each month in the Senate for the consideration of particular bills and resolutions. The nature of bills has no effect on the order or time of their initial consideration.

The Senate, like the House, gives certain motions a privileged status over others and certain business, such as conference reports, command first or immediate consideration, under the theory that a bill which has reached the conference stage has been moved a long way toward enactment and should be privileged when compared with bills that have only been reported.

The continuity of sessions of the same Congress is provided for by the Senate rules:

At the second or any subsequent session of a Congress, the legislative business of the Senate which remained undetermined at the close of the next preceding session of that Congress shall be resumed and proceeded with in the same manner as if no adjournment of the Senate had taken place.

The Personal Responsibility Act

An act to discourage illegitimacy and teen pregnancy by reforming and cutting cash welfare and related programs. This would be achieved by prohibiting welfare to mothers under 18 years of age, denying increased Aid to Families with Dependent Children for additional children while on welfare, and enacting a two-years-and-out provision with work requirements to promote individual responsibility. H.R.4, the Family Self-Sufficiency Act, included provisions giving food vouchers to unwed mothers under 18 in lieu of cash AFDC benefits, denying cash AFDC benefits for additional children to people on AFDC, requiring recipients to participate in work programs after 2 years on AFDC, complete termination of AFDC payments after five years, and suspending driver and professional licenses of people who fail to pay child support. H.R.4, passed by the US House 234â199, March 23, 1995, and passed by the US Senate 87â12, September 19, 1995. The Act was vetoed by President Clinton, but the alternative Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act which offered many of the same policies was enacted August 22, 1996.


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Document Led To Many Successes But Miscalculation In 1998 Midterms Proved Costly

OPINION In 1994, Republicans did something really big.

At the height of the midterm elections that year, on Sept. 27, House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich and a Republican Conference driven by conservative change agents, offered the American electorate a policy document called the Contract With America.

Friday marks the 25th anniversary of the signing of that contract on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. A few weeks later, Republicans won the House, ending a losing streak that dated back to 1954. That victory remains one of the most important events in American political history, an unexpected election outcome that dramatically changed the direction of the country.

Gingrich was one of those rare political leaders whose vision and strength of personality could change not only the course of a nation but the lives of its people in direct and positive ways. His victory, however, didnt come easy.


It was a long journey for a man who had spent years in the political wilderness as a backbencher, driving what he saw as an opportunity agenda, anchored in policy, that could serve as a means to effect political change. For him, it was all about content and communicating the value of that content.

Heres what I wrote in a piece for The Ripon Forum on the contracts 20th anniversary:

Make America Safe Again

JUST IN: House Republican Leaders Hammer Democrats Over Socialist Spending, IRS Snooping

Crime is skyrocketing nationwide in metro areas, and we pledge to investigate the root causes and find solutions to make America safe again, from holding prosecutors who let violent offenders loose accountable to slowing down the 30% rise in murder cases nationwide.

Most importantly, to get the #1 killerfentanyloff our streets and providing real help to those addicted to it.

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Jefferson Advocates Limited Power Of Constitution

Thomas Jeffersons February 15, 1791, opinion on the constitutionality of a national bank is considered one of the stellar statements on the limited powers and strict construction of the Federal Constitution. Alexander Hamilton, a proponent of the broadest interpretation of the constitution based on the implied powers of the Federal Constitution, was the leading advocate for the national bank. Jefferson and Hamilton quickly became outspoken leaders of two opposing interpretations of national government.

Thomas Jefferson. Opinion on a National Bank 1791. Manuscript. Manuscript Division

Bookmark this item: //www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/jefffed.html#129

The Common Sense Legal Reform Act

An act to institute “loser pays” laws , limits on punitive damages and weakening of product-liability laws to prevent what the bill considered frivolous litigation (H.R.956, passed 265â161, March 10, 1995 passed Senate 61â37, May 11, 1995, vetoed by President Clinton. Another tort reform bill, the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, was enacted in 1995 when Congress overrode Clinton’s veto.

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Parental Bill Of Rights

Parents are responsible for making decisions for their children, not the government. Want to know what training youre funding? Or what your child is learning? Or what is on your childs records?

Do you want to be heard at school board meetings? We promise to give that transparency back to you enshrine all your rights in law and give you the ability to sue those who infringe on your rights as a parent.

A Win For Biden Us Senate Passes $1 Trillion Infrastructure Bill

PPT

After years of partisan gridlock, Republicans join Democrats in support of future investment in highways, transit.

The United States Senate approved a major infrastructure spending bill designed to invest $1 trillion in roads, bridges, public transport and improved internet access across the next five years.

After years of partisan gridlock in Washington, DC, Republicans joined Democrats in supporting the legislation, delivering a legislative victory for President Joe Biden who has urged members of the two major parties in Congress to work together.

Hours later, the Senate passed a $3.5 trillion budget resolution voting 50-49 along party lines meant to serve as bedrock of the Biden administrations resphaing federal priorities. The budget framework aims bolster family services, health, and environment programmes.

The American people will now see the most robust injection of funds into infrastructure in decades, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said after the passage of the infrastructure bill.

Youll find better roads, bridges, airports, broadband in the United Arab Emirates than in the United States of America, Schumer, the top Democrat in the Senate, said.

The bill will make large and significant differences in both productivity and job creation in America for decades to come, Schumer said.

It would provide tuition-free community college and foster investments in programmes to significantly reduce carbon emissions blamed for climate change.

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Prescription Drug Coverage In The Health Security Act

The next opportunity to add an outpatient prescription drug benefit in the Medicare program came in 1993 as part of the health security act proposed by President Bill Clinton . Adding a Medicare drug benefit was good policy and good politics: It would be extraordinarily difficult to guarantee comprehensive health benefits, including drugs, to all Americans under age 65 and not to do the same for senior citizens and the disabled, whose needs were generally higher. A new drug benefit might also rally the support of Medicare beneficiaries for the Clinton plan, or at least neutralize potential opposition, given that the plan called for savings in other parts of Medicare as a way to help pay for coverage of uninsured persons under age 65.

The proposed expansion of the Medicare program would include an outpatient prescription drug and biologics benefit as well as a guaranteed national benefits package for those under the age of 65. The Medicare drug benefit would become part of Part B, adding $11 per month to the premium. Beneficiaries would pay a $250 annual deductible and 20 percent of the cost of each prescription up to an annual maximum of $1,000. Low-income beneficiaries would receive assistance with cost sharing.

In the report describing the health security act, the Clinton administration made clear its strategy to contain the cost of the prescription drug benefit:

Fighting To End Illegal Immigration

As the son of a legal immigrant, I know America is truly a refuge for those who love freedom but you have to do it the right way.

If illegal immigration continues, the American Dream will die. Our border is overrun with rampant illegal immigration, drug trafficking, unaccompanied minors being exploited, lost and even sex trafficked.

Border security starts by giving U.S. Border Patrol more resources and personnel, finishing the wall and by strictly enforcing our immigration laws.

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Review And Critical Thinking

  • Describe the way that politics affected Clintons strategy regarding domestic issues such as welfare reform. How did many of Clintons more liberal supporters view the presidents attempts to be perceived as a moderate regarding welfare and other domestic issues?
  • Clinton believed that his election signified a popular mandate for his ideas regarding health care reform. Explain why his plan failed to pass Congress, being sure to describe the viewpoints of its supporters and its opponents.
  • Explain how Republicans under the leadership of Newt Gingrich rose to challenge President Clinton and the Democrats. Briefly discuss the Contract with America and the electoral success of the Republican Party leading up to the election of 1996. Explain why Gingrich and other conservatives failed to maintain this popular support and how Clinton managed to regain high approval ratings in his second term.
  • Explain the source of the conflicts in the Balkans, Rwanda, and Somalia. Discuss Americas response to these conflicts and analyze the effectiveness of the Clinton administration in responding to these and other global conflicts.
  • Briefly explain the role of NAFTA and the World Trade Organization . Explain why many Americans have widely different perspectives regarding these two organizations. Why did students and a variety of other activists demonstrate against the 1999 WTO summit in Seattle?
  • Presidency Of Bill Clinton

    McCarthy Hints At What GOP Would Do If They Take Control Of Congress Next Year

    Bill Clinton’s tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001.

    Bill Clinton’s tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001.

    Led by Newt Gingrich, House Republicans created the Contract with America, which promised an overhaul of the federal welfare system and passage of a balanced budget amendment, term limits, and deregulation.

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    Government And Operational Reforms

    On the first day of their majority in the House, the Republicans promised to bring up for vote, eight major reforms:

  • require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply to Congress
  • select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of Congress for waste, fraud or abuse
  • cut the number of House committees, and cut committee staff by one-third
  • limit the terms of all committee chairs
  • ban the casting of proxy votes in committee
  • require committee meetings to be open to the public
  • require a three-fifths majority vote to pass a tax increase
  • guarantee an honest accounting of the Federal Budget by implementing zero base-line budgeting.
  • Rebuild Broken Rural Parts Of America

    We pledge to prioritize investment in rural America, to expand broadband, repair roads and begin other critical infrastructure needs for the future.

    Well fund necessary infrastructure to fully repair the supply chain, develop economic policy to alleviate inflation, and stop dependence on China, from farmland to pharmaceuticals.

    We will work to bring back President Trumps roaring economy and low gas prices.

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    Th United States Congress

    Meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives.

    Meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives.

    Major events included passage of elements of the Contract with America and a budget impasse between Congress and the Clinton administration that resulted in the federal government shutdown of 1995 and 1996.

    Burning Down The House: Newt Gingrich The Fall Of A Speaker And The Rise Of The New Republican Party

    Newt Gingrich

    The story of how Newt Gingrich and his allies tainted American politics, launching an enduring era of brutal partisan warfare

    When Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, President Obama observed that Trump is not an outlier he is a culmination, a logical conclusion of the rhetoric and tactics of the Republican Party. In Burning Down the House, historian Julian Zelizer pinpoints the moment when our country was set on a path toward an era of bitterly partisan and ruthless politics, an era that was ignited by Newt Gingrich and his allies. In 1989, Gingrich brought down Democratic Speaker of the House Jim Wright and catapulted himself into the national spotlight. Perhaps more than any other politician, Gingrich introduced the rhetoric and tactics that have shaped Congress and the Republican Party for the last three decades. Elected to Congress in 1978, Gingrich quickly became one of the most powerful figures in America not through innovative ideas or charisma, but through a calculated campaign of attacks against political opponents, casting himself as a savior in a fight of good versus evil. Taking office in the post-Watergate era, he weaponized the good government reforms newly introduced to fight corruption, wielding the rules in ways that shocked the legislators who had created them. His crusade against Democrats culminated in the plot to destroy the political career of Speaker Wright.

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