Republicans gathering in Philadelphia this week for their annual legislative retreat will be working to gain a consensus on the 2017 legislative agenda and to achieve a common theme for that agenda. The specific agenda items are not in dispute as the new administration and the party have clearly signaled what they hope to accomplish. What is less clear is whether or not there is unity on how to accomplish theses items and the thematic umbrella under which they fall.
President Trump’s inaugural speech suggested a good approach: “What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people.” No doubt, this will be a refrain that we frequently hear over the course of the year.
{mosads}But beneath the surface there is a tension that needs to be resolved. One one hand, Trump has rightly vowed to give power back to the people, but he has also promised to “build new roads, and highways, and bridges, and airports, and tunnels, and railways all across our wonderful nation.”
Those promises are not inherently contradictory, but history suggests they may very well end up in conflict. There is no doubt that infrastructure is important. However, Washington’s typical approach to infrastructure is emblematic of the mentality that the swamp is the best place to make decisions. It would be a mistake – and a missed opportunity for Trump and his team – to allow that mentality to take hold on all the other legislative items that Congress will consider.
Instead, Republicans and the Trump Administration should make it very clear that the way to put Americans first is to truly devolve power from Washington back to the people and their local governments. Fortunately, they have an agenda ready and waiting that can achieve that purpose.
On health care reform, Republicans cannot replace ObamaCare with a Republican version of reform that calls the shots federally. They need to empower states and individuals to make the markets actually work in the health care market thereby returning power to the people. That cannot happen if ObamaCare’s mandates, taxes and spending remain on the books. Soon-to-be Secretary Tom Price had a plan that moved in that direction, as do many others.
On education reform, Republicans need to embrace plans like the A-Plus Act championed by Republican Study Committee Chairman Rep. Mark Walker. This bill eliminates federal mandates. They can go further on the innovation side by pushing Rep. Ron DeSantis’s Higher Education Reform and Opportunity (HERO) Act that would allow individuals to use federal grant money on vastly more forms of higher education thereby creating a free and competitive market empowering families and students.
Welfare reform needs this kind of thinking too. Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan has been leading the charge in the House to enact welfare reform 2.0. A key feature of this plan is that it caps federal welfare spending in perpetuity, thereby beginning the process of devolving welfare spending back to the states. Welfare money should be raised and spent closer to the people it is intended to help. This is how we deliver personalized and compassionate care rather than the one-size fits all federal handouts that have actually hurt those it intended to help.
Also crucial will be enacting a tax reform bill that dramatically simplifies the tax code and brings American jobs back home. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Kevin Brady’s draft gets at this issue in a way that would allow American families to spend significantly less time focuses on complicated tax forms and more time on what matters to them. American businesses also would be freed from onerous regulations and compliance burdens.
Infrastructure reform will be more complicated, but there has been a lot of work done already on the idea of devolving power to states and localities. It will be important to free states from draconian, unnecessary federal regulations that increase the cost of infrastructure projects.
Finally, there will be a massive fight over the next nominee to the Supreme Court. The left will want to make this all about social issues that progressives want to split the country over. Republicans should make this fight about devolution of power. They can do this by pointing out that courts should not legislate, because that cuts out the American voter. Congress – and therefore the people – has that specific power and the Republican Party is fighting to ensure that they keep it.
Perhaps one of Trump’s most impassioned rally cries on the campaign trail was the promise to drain the swamp. Draining the swamp can only happen if less money flows through Washington, D.C. The thousands of federal lobbyists who work in this town will continue to thrive if power is not devolved. The way to do this is to ask a simple question about each piece of legislation that Congress considers: who decides? Does this bill empower decision makers (i.e., unelected bureaucrats) at the federal level? Or does it empower states, localities and individuals?
If more often than not the answer is the latter, this president and this Congress will be on the path to truly making America great again.
Tim Chapman is the chief operating officer of Heritage Action for America, an advocacy arm of the conservative Heritage Foundation.
The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.