PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida — House Republicans are finalizing their “Commitment to America” agenda here at the House GOP retreat, House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview.
McCarthy said to expect, timeline-wise, a formal announcement of the agenda later in the summer towards the end of July–so members can tell their constituents about it during the August recess–and another formal push in September ahead of the November midterm elections.
“We started this a year ago getting the members into all the different task forces,” McCarthy said. “They’ve been meeting, we’ve been listening, and some things we’ve already rolled out like the Parents Bill of Rights, Border Security, but what we’ve done even further is not just the members on the task forces but each week we’ve been home we’ve been having a second conference call where we invite the task force members in where each task force has been presenting. This retreat is based on that and we’re going to narrow down and finalize and get our members together and united because you got to pass what you’re going to run on. We’ll narrow down what those policies we’re going to have and then I believe we’ll focus a little more and then we’ll roll it out to the American public I’m looking kind of maybe towards the end of July where the members can go out and talk about it to the public in August and then do a formal one in September. This next couple days is really critical in narrowing down some of the things we’re going to do.”
The “Commitment to America” agenda, very similar to the “Contract with America” that Newt Gingrich introduced in 1994 before Republicans swept into power that year, is something McCarthy outlined in a long-form On The Hill video exclusive with Breitbart News taped late last year and released in early January. Now, Republicans are close to finishing it here at the House GOP retreat—and a press conference with GOP leaders saw the Republicans previewing the plan, expected to be a bold contrast with the complete Democrat control of Washington, DC, the past year plus, this week.
“We know what a Democrat agenda is—it’s weakness around the world,” McCarthy said. “It’s making us not energy independent. It’s an insecure border. It’s crime in our streets. It’s inflation, runaway spending. Ours is almost the complete opposite. The first thing we got to do is go after the rising prices. We do that in a number of different ways. The first is you stop the waste inside government. You don’t have government pay people more to stay home than to go to work. Then you go into and you make America energy independent—not just independent but dominant. If you lower the price of gas it saves a lot of people. But what people don’t understand is crude goes into a lot of things—it goes into the product right here, it goes into your clothing, it goes into ink, it goes into everything else. Also the transportation cost—it costs you food, and everything else. So how do we change the supply chain to actually work and get energy independent? We’ve got to go after crime. These DAs who are not upholding the law—we can take our cop grants that go to all these cities and say you can have the cop grant as long as your DA upholds the law and doesn’t pick and choose. Instead of defunding police, we will actually add funding to police—and take our streets back. You’ve got to secure the border and you’ve got to do that right away in the process as well because a couple things happen. It’s not just what’s happening with these millions of people coming here illegally. Fentanyl is now the number one cause of death for people aged between 18 and 45 in America. That’s because our border is not secure. You’ve got people on the terrorist watch list, they’re coming into America. There was just a story I saw last night, I haven’t been able to verify it, but they had somebody from South America come into America illegally and just ransack the Beverly Hills stores and robbing houses because they see crime and the vulnerability there. We have got to make sure parents have input in their kids’ education. What is going on in education and what they’re trying to capture, we’ve got to stop that process with the CRT and others.”
McCarthy added, too, that not only do Republicans plan to draw a contrast with Democrats on policy but on process as well.
“So, we’ve got a lot of work to do, but to make that happen you’ve got to reform Congress itself,” McCarthy said. “No longer are members going to be proxy voting. They’ve got to show up to vote. You’ve got to go to committee and work. No longer is the Speaker going to have all the power. We’re going to open the House up to the people’s house. We’re going to have people not pick and choose who can be in the press to hold them accountable—you’re going to be in the press to hold us accountable. That’s going to be the fundamental difference—you have better policy, you have accountability through the committees to hold this administration accountable. This administration has not been held accountable—that’s why they have been making a lot of these problems and mistakes. You’ll see us passing good legislation out of the House and pressuring the Senate to pass it on to the president’s desk. You’ll never have to worry about the filibuster again.”
Since that taping of the video special, more and more Democrats have announced their plans to abandon their majority and instead retire. “I think we’ll get as high as 35 to 40,” McCarthy said.
Meanwhile, what McCarthy described back then as a “perfect storm” for Republicans—low presidential approval ratings for Democrat President Joe Biden, high numbers for the GOP on the generic ballot in polling, redistricting, and a referendum setup where the other party has historically slim majorities in both chambers as well as the White House—is only getting stronger. Biden’s approval rating keeps sinking—it hit as low as 34 percent in poll this week—and Republicans continue to lead the generic ballot across the board. In addition, McCarthy noted, Republicans are making gains with key minority groups to include an outright lead with Hispanic voters and significant improvement with black voters according to some polling.
“The Hispanic population in America now favors Republicans by nine points,” McCarthy said. “African Americans, we’ve improved—we’re not in the majority there but what you’re seeing is that America is rejecting the Democratic policies and what they’re doing to America. They want to see a change. That’s why it’s critical. This is where I disagree with McConnell with so much—you’ve got to lay out to America what you’re for and what you will do with a majority. That’s why we will lay out to America what we’re for in the campaign and we will have a contrast.”
What’s more, McCarthy added that Republicans can make gains with women who feel betrayed by Democrats for the left’s decision to cavort with transgenderism especially in women’s sports.
“It’s unfair,” McCarthy said when asked about Lia Thomas, a transgendered biological male, competing in the women’s NCAA swimming competition. McCarthy said Republicans have used a tactic called a “motion to recommit,” where they force votes on measures from the minority citing specifically a proposal from Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) to push back on the radicalism by protecting women’s opportunities and blocking the ability of transgendered individuals from keeping women off a team. McCarthy also cited women athletes who say this is unfair treatment.
“There’s a number of ways we combat that—we’re not just now combatting it, we’ve had a number of pieces where we have through [motions to recommit] and what not from members like Steube,” McCarthy said. “We saw this problem on the forefront coming to it but now the American public is being informed about it. But you see a lot of women athletes standing up and saying time and again that this is unfair. They’ve watched it.”
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