Little-Acorn
Gold Member
I just heard on the news that Trump would propose a "Contract with America", ten points he wanted to do in his first 100 days as President. The speech is supposed to start soon.
Did Trump call it a "Contract with America", or did the press just christen it that way, due to its being ten points?
The original "Contract with America" was proposed in 1994 by minority Republicans in the House. They pointed out ten bills that Republicans had submitted, which the majority Democrats had immediately bottled up in committee, the equivalent of a death sentence. Being the majority at the time, Democrats could prevent the bills from ever being discussed or brought to the floor for a vote.
Republicans simply said that, if you vote us into the majority in the House, we will dig those ten bills out of the committee, bring them to the floor for discussion, and then vote on each one. They also named eight reforms.
That was the Contract with America. They pointed out they could never guarantee the bills would pass, only that they would receive a vote. And they certainly couldn't predict what the Senate would do, whether they would pass any of them or even vote on them. And of course, they couldn't predict what then-President Bill Clinton would sign them into law. It was quite likely he wouldn't.
Once they promised to vote on the bills in the House, the American people grabbed it with both hands. They were so fed up with the intransigence and lies of the Democrats, that they kicked them out of majorities, not only in the House but in the Senate, and even in the majority of state governorships and many state legislatures.
The Republicans kept their word, and brought all ten bills to the floor of the House for discussion, and voted on them with the Democrats now in the minority. All ten passed, going far beyond the original promise. And the Senate took up all ten, and voted on them too, passing most. And Bill Clinton (after a huge barrage of letters, call, and telegrams from normal Americans) even signed many of them into law.
The original Contract with America was a House-only initiative, having nothing to do with the President or Senate. Now Trump's proposal, if he makes it as I've heard he will do in a few minutes in his coming speech, is apparently a President-only proposal, having little do with the House or Senate.
Of course, if elected Trump will have the power of the Bully Pulpit - the ability to make a nationwide speech describing what he wanted to do, directly to the American public bypassing a hostile press, and asking them to contact their House and Senate members and telling them to vote for his proposal. This is a power that former President Reagan used to great effect to ram his tax cuts and military buildup through a reluctant House and bare-majority Senate in the early 1980s. Many years of increasing prosperity, for rich and poor alike, followed as trickle-down worked.
Lots of differences between Trump's ten points and the minority Republicans' in the early 80s. But they have some things in common: Americans are once again fed up with Democrat lies, intransigence, as well as their leftward stampede - a stampede that even some RINO Republicans have joined too.
Did Trump call it a "Contract with America", or did the press just christen it that way, due to its being ten points?
The original "Contract with America" was proposed in 1994 by minority Republicans in the House. They pointed out ten bills that Republicans had submitted, which the majority Democrats had immediately bottled up in committee, the equivalent of a death sentence. Being the majority at the time, Democrats could prevent the bills from ever being discussed or brought to the floor for a vote.
Republicans simply said that, if you vote us into the majority in the House, we will dig those ten bills out of the committee, bring them to the floor for discussion, and then vote on each one. They also named eight reforms.
That was the Contract with America. They pointed out they could never guarantee the bills would pass, only that they would receive a vote. And they certainly couldn't predict what the Senate would do, whether they would pass any of them or even vote on them. And of course, they couldn't predict what then-President Bill Clinton would sign them into law. It was quite likely he wouldn't.
Once they promised to vote on the bills in the House, the American people grabbed it with both hands. They were so fed up with the intransigence and lies of the Democrats, that they kicked them out of majorities, not only in the House but in the Senate, and even in the majority of state governorships and many state legislatures.
The Republicans kept their word, and brought all ten bills to the floor of the House for discussion, and voted on them with the Democrats now in the minority. All ten passed, going far beyond the original promise. And the Senate took up all ten, and voted on them too, passing most. And Bill Clinton (after a huge barrage of letters, call, and telegrams from normal Americans) even signed many of them into law.
The original Contract with America was a House-only initiative, having nothing to do with the President or Senate. Now Trump's proposal, if he makes it as I've heard he will do in a few minutes in his coming speech, is apparently a President-only proposal, having little do with the House or Senate.
Of course, if elected Trump will have the power of the Bully Pulpit - the ability to make a nationwide speech describing what he wanted to do, directly to the American public bypassing a hostile press, and asking them to contact their House and Senate members and telling them to vote for his proposal. This is a power that former President Reagan used to great effect to ram his tax cuts and military buildup through a reluctant House and bare-majority Senate in the early 1980s. Many years of increasing prosperity, for rich and poor alike, followed as trickle-down worked.
Lots of differences between Trump's ten points and the minority Republicans' in the early 80s. But they have some things in common: Americans are once again fed up with Democrat lies, intransigence, as well as their leftward stampede - a stampede that even some RINO Republicans have joined too.
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