New contract?

First of all, thanks to all who commented on my immigration post. I was expecting the usual tired and emotional diatribes, and you gave me some of that. But much of the discussion was thoughtful and reasonable on both ends. Those of you who say my support for the free flow of labor is nuts may want to check out this link, which was sent to me by a reader. Also, I would recommend reading Lant Pritchett, a BYU graduate who worked at the World Bank and now is a Harvard professor. He wrote the book, Let their people come.

Now onto other things. I just came across this interesting little item at Politico.com. It seems Republicans want Illinois Rep. Peter Roskam to help the party draft a new contract with America, which tentatively has been renamed the Commitment With America.

Hmm.

Wasn’t commitment the big problem with Republican rule in Congress during the last decade? Didn’t those people who swept into power with the “contract” end up being just as tax-and-spend happy as their predecessors?

I’m looking through that original “contract” right now. We got welfare reform. We got some tax cuts and a strong national defense, although nowhere near the detailed defense reforms that were outlined. We didn’t get a balanced budget amendment or a line-item veto or term limits. The whole contract (I’ve got it in a 196-page book) is too much to go into here. But after some early successes and a strong economic surge in the late ’90s, the GOP seemed to lose interest.

Will the new “commitment” also include a rollback of government regulations to encourage investment? I’m guessing that isn’t a popular one these days. And term limits? Well, why would you voluntarily give up hard-won power? Can we believe any politician in this bailout era about balancing the budget?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not endorsing Democrats. At least the GOP is talking in the right direction much of the time.

But anything that hearkens back to the “contract” will just remind people that Republicans didn’t stay committed, even when they controlled the White House and Congress.