Contract With America

A Revolutionary Reform

By Bruce Walker
Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Republicans, even if they win both houses of Congress, will have limited power to actually undo the damage of the Obama Administration’s use of the Democrat’s heady majorities in Congress since 2011. Nominal control of the Senate will not even translate into Republican power to bring measures to a vote, because Democrats can filibuster any measures proposed by Republicans. The Republican majorities may reach 55 seats in the Senate and, perhaps, 270 seats in the House—if the election is a perfect storm for Republicans—but even that will not allow the override of an Obama veto.

So what can Republicans do which will really reflect revolutionary change? The much-maligned Contract With America, which was limited only to Republicans who signed the document and who were running for seats in the House of Representatives, provides some clues. The Contract With America is often considered to have failed, but as the Heritage Foundations points out: http://www.heritage.org/Research/Lectur ... -in-the-US “One of the revolutionary elements of the Contract is the fact that it actually was implemented as promised.â€