Politics

Boehner’s governing platform centers on repealing Obamacare, rolling back of tax increases and regulation

Jon Ward Contributor
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House Minority Leader John Boehner and the House Republican leadership are set to unveil Thursday their agenda for governing, with an emphasis on repealing President Obama’s health care overhaul and reining in tax increases and regulation.

The plan came under immediate criticism from congressional Democrats but also was brutally savaged by some leading conservatives. The full document can be read here.

Erick Erickson, founder of RedState.com, called the proposal “dreck.”

“The entirety of this Promise is laughable. Why? It is an illusion that fixates on stuff the GOP already should be doing while not daring to touch on stuff that will have any meaningful longterm effects on the size and scope of the federal government,” Erickson wrote.

“This document proves the GOP is more focused on the acquisition of power than the advocacy of long term sound public policy,” he said.

But National Review, one of the two leading conservative magazines in Washington, had praise for the document, deeming it “bolder” than the 1994 “Contract with America.”

“The pledge is explicitly a beginning to the lengthy task of providing conservative governance, and a very good one,” the magazine’s editors wrote. “It is also a shrewd political document.”

The proposal centers around an intent to repeal the health care bill passed in March, despite the fact that such a repeal is virtually impossible barring a completely unforeseen election result in November. Republicans would need to have close to two thirds majorities in both the House and Senate to override the inevitable veto that President Obama would hand down to any bill designed to repeal the health plan.

But the Republican agenda document states that “because the new health care law kills jobs, raises taxes, and increases the cost of health care, we will immediately take action to repeal this law.”

Besides repeal of the health bill, the plan focuses on job creation through the introduction of more certainty for the private sector and business through extending the Bush tax cuts and rolling back regulations.

There is also a section on reform of congressional procedure that would require bills to be posted for three days before votes, and that would require every piece of legislation to “include a clause citing the specific constitutional authority upon which the bill is justified.”

Another section deals with national defense, touching on immigration, Iran and fewer rights for those deemed to be “foreign terrorists.”

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