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The Nov. 2 GOP tidal wave will shift control of the U.S. House of Representatives to the party of Reagan, blunt the liberal Democratic Senate majority and could bring the Obama agenda to a screeching halt.
Now, the GOP needs to lead. What should their agenda be?
Townhall asked leading conservatives to offer advice to the new Republican majority on taxes, spending, illegal immigration, ObamaCare, social issues, the judiciary and the preservation of the Constitution.
We've posted Glenn Beck's essay, "Don't Screw This Up: Limit Your Own Power," and Rep. Michele Bachmann's "Listen to the Tea Party."
Today, here's an excerpt of Reagan Attorney General Ed Meese's entry, "Restore Constitutional Government":
One of the most significant phenomena of the recent electoral campaign was the expanded interest in the Constitution of the United States by citizens throughout the country. Ordinary people began to read the Constitution and examine the way in which the national government was being operated, in contrast to what the Constitution actually requires.
Obviously the various tea party groups and similar citizen organizations, numbering in the thousands, contributed to this enhanced interest in our founding document. In doing so, they began to recognize that the Founders’ concept of limited government, divided authority among the three branches, and checks and balances, all designed to protect individual liberty, were being ignored or, in some cases, deliberately violated by some government.
Examples of this disregard of the Constitution abound. When the speaker of the House of Representatives was asked where in the Constitution does it authorize the Congress to require citizens to purchase health insurance, she responded, “Are you serious? Are you serious?” In other words, what does the Constitution have to do with the laws Congress is passing? Another House member, when asked about the same health care legislation and about limits on congressional authority to enact it, stated that there was virtually nothing that the federal government could not do. What a contrast to the Founders’ view of limited government.
Likewise in the executive branch, new positions in the White House have been filled with “czars” who wield great power over executive branch programs and activities, which have traditionally been managed within the cabinet departments. Being in the president’s executive office, these “czars” are neither confirmed by the Senate nor are they subject to the usual questioning by congressional committees.
Beyond that, the White House has on occasion circumvented the senatorial confirmation process entirely by the bogus use of recess appointments when the people being appointed would probably not be able to withstand congressional scrutiny.
In the third branch of government, judges are usurping both legislative and executive power by intruding into matters pertaining to the conduct of war, a subject reserved by the Constitution to the elected branches. The Constitution gives this authority to the president as commander in chief and to Congress as the body charged with making the rules for the governing and regulation of the armed forces. In a variety of cases, judges have also undermined the Constitution by substituting their personal views, political biases and policy preferences for what the Constitution, and the laws enacted under it, actually provide. ...
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To read all of Attorney General Ed Meese's advice for the GOP, including seven steps to restore our constitutional government, and to get the entire December symposium, order Townhall Magazine today.
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