Conservative movement leaders are unveiling the mandate they say Republicans have heading into this new Congress, after voters gave them a majority in both the House and Senate for the first time during President Obama’s tenure.
The document, obtained exclusively by Breitbart News, details how the conservative leaders expect Republicans in Congress to “stop” Obama’s “fundamental transformation of America,” something they say the American people made clear in the 2014 midterm elections with such resounding GOP victories.
“The November 2014 election was a repudiation of the complicity of the United States Congress in President Obama’s dramatic and unconstitutional expansion of government,” the document’s introduction reads, before listing several major expectations the American people have of Republicans as this new Congress begins.
Signers of the mandate document include columnist and former federal prosecutor Andrew C. McCarthy, New York Times No. 1 bestselling author Brad Thor, former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, ConservativeHQ’s Richard Viguerie, Eagle Forum’s Phyllis Schlafly, Family Research Council executive vice president and retired Army Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, Secure America Now president Allen Roth, nationally syndicated radio host of American Family Radio Sandy Rios, Election Law Center’s J. Christian Adams, Center for Security Policy’s Frank Gaffney, Americans for Limited Government’s Rick Manning, author and speaker Tim Daughtry, American Family Association president Tim Wildmon, ForAmerica president David Bozell, and American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp, along with scores of other signers.
The major bullet points that the conservative leaders say the citizenry expects of Republicans include: an end to Obama’s “promised ‘Fundamental Transformation’ of the country,” a stop to overreaches by the executive branch, a restoration of “Constitutional balance of power among the three branches of government,” for Republicans to “bring an end to the perennially unpopular Affordable Care Act,” to stop “the President’s Executive Amnesty initiatives,” while holding “the Executive branch accountable for its myriad abuses of power and its national security failures both foreign and domestic” and a new beginning that puts “the interests of the United States of America first among nations.”
“The contentious vote for Speaker of the House the week of January 5, 2015 reflected the frustration of voters nationwide, who did not have confidence that last year’s Republican House Leadership would have the courage to carry out the voters’ mandate,” the conservative leaders write. “A poll conducted in late December by Pat Caddell confirmed a growing rift between voters and Republican leaders in the House and Senate.”
The conservative leaders specifically define what they think the GOP mandate is—and why they think Republicans blew the mandate in the lame duck session of the last Congress, but can save themselves moving forward.
“The November election was a repudiation of President Obama’s dramatic expansion of government power both through legislative and executive actions,” they write. “The voters demanded that Congress stop this President’s fundamental transformation of America using every power at their disposal, restoring Constitutional balance of power, and ending the Executive Branch abuses against both the citizenry and the foundational concept that individual rights are derived from God, not government.”
Despite having the bold mandate from American voters to stop Obamacare and executive amnesty the conservative leaders write that Republicans during the lame duck session of the last Congress “stuck a collective thumb in the eye of the voters by working with the White House to undercut that vote and become complicit in government’s expansion.”
They were specifically speaking about the 1,774-page, $1.1 trillion so-called “cromnibus” spending bill, a bill that not one member of Congress was able to read before voting on it. That action, the conservative leaders say, “gave away” this new Congress’ power of the purse and “undercut the incoming majority’s ability to govern.” It also “delivered to Obama and crony capitalists what they wanted,” while it “certified Obama’s executive amnesty and paid for the continuation of Obamacare.”
The conservative leaders added that Obama knows GOP leadership officials “had capitulated and in fact had enabled his agenda by funding his programs for a year.” They cite a quote from the “newly confident” Obama on Dec. 19, 2014, where he “hailed” the passage of the cromnibus.
“We really do have a new foundation that’s been laid,” Obama said then, as quoted by the conservative mandate document.
We are better positioned than we have been in a very long time. A new future is ready to be written. We’ve set the stage for this American moment. And I’m going to spend every minute of my last two years making sure that we seize it. My presidency is entering the fourth quarter; interesting stuff happens in the fourth quarter. And I’m looking forward to it.
But it’s not too late to turn this ship around and provide leadership in response to the mandate voters put forward, the conservative leaders note throughout the document. A series of checkpoints over the next several pages detail several specific action items Republicans can take in this new Congress.
Republicans can, for instance, use the power of oversight to hold “serious hearings” aimed at keeping Obama officials accountable “on how the Administration executes, breaks, or ignores the laws.” Conservatives call on each congressional committee to “produce a biennial report detailing how the agencies and departments for which it is responsible misuse taxpayer dollars by waste, fraud, abuse and repetitive programs” which also would “detail any and all obstruction, refusal to implement laws, abuse of power and targeting of political adversaries.”
In addition, Republicans could craft “free market alternatives to Obamacare,” aim to “stop corporate welfare,” push gun-rights reforms that allow things such as “concealed gun carry reciprocity nation-wide,” reform or repeal the Dodd-Frank financial legislation, stop Common Core and “expose federal overreach in education,” work to protect national security by “balancing” data protection programs, blocking funding for executive amnesty and other “lawless initiatives” of Obama, and working to expose “the cozy network among Wall Street, K Street and government, including the Treasury and the Federal Reserve.”
They also say Republicans are expected to ensure the U.S. military has the means it needs to complete its missions and objectives, determine “the failings and decisions that led to the death of four Americans at the Libyan consulate in Benghazi, correct them, and hold those responsible who made the disastrous choices during that long seven hour siege,” force the Obama administration to come to Congress about a $100 billion “open line of credit from the U.S. Treasury” to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and defund Obama’s executive amnesty while using “the oversight and appropriations process to direct the Department of Homeland Security to enforce the existing immigration laws Congress has duly enacted.”
They say Republicans must follow “regular order” in the House and Senate, and move legislation slowly through subcommittees to committees then to the House floor—rather than moving things through Congress so quickly the American people, and members, don’t know what Congress is voting on.
“Legislation starts with subcommittees. It involves holding hearings at which the public and experts participate. Legislation should not land, by manipulated press spin, on the floor after a White House meeting or leadership direction to Rules Committee,” they write, adding that “members should always have adequate time to review, amend, and debate legislation” and that major bills like authorizations, appropriations, and budgeting should be done by committees rather than “concentrate power in leadership.”
Several specific issues coming up right away that the mandate document deals with include the immigration battle in the DHS funding battle, steps Obama’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is taking to harm employers, and exercising caution on any trans-Pacific partnership free trade zone efforts. Republicans can also use the coming battle over the new Authorization for Use of Military Force to influence military and foreign policy, the conservative note, and work to stop Obama’s release of suspected terrorists from Guantanamo Bay prison.
Republicans should also pursue Iran sanctions, they write, noting that bipartisan legislation to do that is scheduled for early this Congress. They conclude:
Congress has an historic opportunity to lay down a marker for freedom and stop the erosion of freedom emanating from the pen of President Obama. They were elected to do just that, to not only stop the fundamental transformation of America, but to create the alternative vision of a prosperous, free America where citizens know that hard work is the pathway to success. They were elected to protect and defend the Constitution from the tidal wave of encroachments that threaten the basic God-given freedom from government that individuals are guaranteed.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.