Judd Gregg: An agenda for the Republican Congress

Congress has returned, and it appears to have begun a sprint to ineptness.  

There seems to be no clear path to passing the appropriation bills that are needed to run the government.    

There is no clear path to action on the critical issues such as tax reform and repatriation; or energy policy; or immigration policy; or a student loan fix; or getting the economy out of the first gear it seems to be stuck in; or addressing the trade imbalance that is stifling American manufacturing.

{mosads}Just showing up and doing repeated can-kicking seems to be the order of activity for this Congress, this fall.

A great deal of the fault for this lies with President Obama, who a long time ago abandoned the field of constructive legislative activity. He and his minions have retreated to a position of using regulations to push their agenda. 

They have essentially directed their soldiers in Congress to stop constructive conversation on all issues of importance and hide behind the barricades of hyperbolized language dedicated to non-accomplishment in the legislative arena.

So can this Congress do anything without a president and minority party in the room?

The answer should be and can be: Yes, a great deal.

To begin with, the constructive rank-and-file can stand up for themselves.  They — not the leadership — need to confront those in the party who wish to use this time once again to marginalize the GOP through their own efforts at self-aggrandizement.  

It is these self-aggrandizers who are threatening a government shutdown. Their more responsible colleagues should treat them with disdain. They should be identified as folks who are extremely slow learners or simply demagogues, or both.

Then the leadership, working with the rank-and-file membership across both Houses, needs to develop a single, definable package of action items. 

Its purpose should be to create jobs, spur economic growth, promote individual initiative and revitalize the conservative message of a fiscally responsible government.  

The package needs a name that can be used across all levels of discussion — one that is survivable and vibrant as a theme.   

The last true success with this type of effort was the Contract With America in the 1990s.   

This time around, perhaps it could be called, ‘The Had-Enough Agenda.’

Include in it a plan to roll back the massive government excess that has become the calling card of the Obama administration. The president’s policies in this regard specifically stifle small business and individual initiative.

Include in it obvious but ignored elements of a constructive energy policy, such as exporting oil, repealing the EPA’s overreach regarding the production of electricity, building the Keystone and ANWR pipelines, and thus protecting and creating jobs.

Include in it obviously beneficial changes to tax policy, encompassing repatriation, a territorial system and a massive simplification of the tax laws as proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).

Include in it a new approach to college tuition so people know what they are paying for and why the price keeps going up. Push distance learning and other alternative means of acquiring the education working Americans need in a technology-driven world.

Include in it a commitment to get to a balanced budget by a date certain.

Include in it any good idea that will drive better economic outcomes for working Americans and more responsible and affordable government.

Then call it up as a block item. The House can pass it. The Senate Democrats will filibuster it.  

Let them.  

It is a briar patch that Republicans should love. The Republicans will have set a clear, defined and communicable purpose. The party of Obama will have obstructed it.  

Guess who will be holding the better position?

Judd Gregg (R) is a former governor and three-term senator from New Hampshire who served as chairman and ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, and as ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Foreign Operations subcommittee.