Well, it's out....

GOP Pledge to America

Nice words. 

Great preamble.

Great pledge, for example, to the 10th Amendment.  Ok, so this means that the National Firearms Act, The Department of Education, Social Security, Medicare and all the rest will be offered as bills to repeal all of the above - and lots more - the day after the new Congress convenes?

Oh, I doubt it.

Actually, I don't doubt it, I know it's BS.  It didn't take 'em more than a couple of pages to....

With common-sense exceptions for seniors, veterans, and our troops, we will roll back government spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels, saving us at least $100 billion in the first year alone and putting us on a path to balance the budget and pay down the debt. We will also establish strict budget caps to limit federal spending from this point forward.

Ah, so the biggest budget-buster of them all, Medicare Part D, will remain untouched.  For that matter so will Social Security and Medicare generally.

Remember my previous Ticker on this point?  Well there you go.  The GOP ignores the elephant in the room.  Entirely.

The centerpiece of the GOP plan?  Getting rid of the $600 1099 requirement (good, but of little fiscal impact) and cutting more taxes.  Ok, how about spending?  Specifically, entitlement spending?

They claim to be intending to "stop out-of-control spending"?  Note:

Over the past three years, non-security discretionary spending (the spending that is approved each year by Congress outside of the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of Veterans Affairs) has increased a staggering 88 percent. As a result, we now borrow 41 cents of every dollar we spend, much of it from foreign countries, including China, and leave the bill to our kids and grandkids.

Uh, true on the increase in spending.  False on the problem.  As noted, all Federal taxation is currently going to entitlements, with nothing left over.  You can't address this without cutting those entitlements.  The GOP knows this, and then intentionally ignores it.

Cut Government Spending to Pre-Stimulus, Pre-Bailout Levels: With common-sense exceptions for seniors, veterans, and our troops, we will roll back government spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels, saving us at least $100 billion in the first year alone and putting us on a path to begin paying down the debt, balancing the budget, and ending the spending spree in Washington that threatens our children’s future.

Wow, $100 billion! 

WE ARE MORE THAN $1.3 TRILLION, OR THIRTEEN TIMES, THAT LEVEL IN THE HOLE EVERY YEAR!  This plan means NOTHING in terms of addressing the ACTUAL PROBLEM.

Getting rid of Obama-Care is a good start.  Now where is the discussion about the points in my Health Care plan that would actually provide competition?  Missing, that's where.  Why?  Duh.  Oh sure, opening insurance across state lines is good.  Not forcing companies to bill the same amount to everyone isn't, nor is allowing cost-shifting of the uninsured to those who are insured.  You can't fix the problem until you take on those two issues.  Period.

Much of the rest sounds good.

But the plan is long on rhetoric and damn short on substance.  Further, it contains lies right up front - a claim that the 10th Amendment will be respected, for instance. 

If the GOP meant that, I'd be behind it 100%. 

But if they meant it then 80% of what The Federal Government does today would be declared unconstitutional tomorrow, from the Brady Act to the National Firearms Act to drug prohibition to the Departments of Agriculture and Education, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP and more.

My retort to the GOP: STOP LYING.