I once knew a pastor who liked to joke that he’d only had one new idea in his life—and it was wrong. Did I mention that he was a Republican?
It may be hard to remember, but Republicans used to be an idea machine. Driven by its conservative wing—which included Newt Gingrich, Dick Armey, Jack Kemp, Phil Gramm and several others—Republicans regularly churned out innovative policy ideas for addressing public policy challenges. Today, well, not so much.
That Republicans seem to be in an idea vacuum is the most common complaint I hear from friends on the right.
Actually, that may also be the most common complaint from the left. Hence the left’s vociferous calls for Republicans to rethink their positions every time the GOP takes a beating at the polls. Ignore for the moment the irony, if not hypocrisy, that those calling for a Republican rethink are the same ones whose policy message hasn’t changed in 80 years: more government, taxes and spending.
It wasn’t always thus. In the late 1980s, Republicans were a veritable ideas factory, proposing ways to reduce taxes, spur economic growth and reform entitlement programs, among other solutions. And they managed to get some of those ideas passed, even with a Democratically controlled Congress.
That energy culminated in a solid political defeat for President Bill Clinton two years into his first term when Republicans took over both the House and Senate in 1994, after 40 years of being in the minority.
There are parallels. Republicans also chalked up a big House win in 2010, two years into President Obama’s first term. Both presidents arrogantly entered the White House thinking they could impose a liberal agenda on the country, including sweeping health care reform and tax increases. And the public responded negatively two years later at the polls.
What’s different is that the 1994 victory was led by ideas. There was the Contract with America that promised several major reforms (and included the legislative language on most of the). Republicans had a real alternative to ClintonCare—Medical Savings Accounts (now called Health Savings Accounts). They pushed Enterprise Zones to reinvigorate low-income neighborhoods. And they had serious debates about the merits of a flat tax versus a national sales tax. While some ideas were better than others, creative proposals were the coin of the realm in 1994.
By contrast, the 2010 election was not so much about good Republican ideas as it was bad Democratic ones; the voters were rejecting one group more than they were embracing another.
So where are the innovative policy proposals that could inspire a nation to trust Republicans?
Not on entitlements, surely. Republicans seem to have two proposals for Medicare and Social Security reform: raise the retirement age and cut benefits. Forgive me if I’m not bowled over by their creativity.
Where is the energy behind the GOP’s long-held fondness for personal retirement accounts, the only solution to long-term unfunded government liabilities?
President George W. Bush meekly attempted to include personal accounts back in 2005, and Democrats beat him up for it. But Bush should have been beaten up because his effort was so lame.
Paul Ryan’s Medicare reform was a good start, but Republicans seem to be laying low now that Ryan is no longer the veep nominee.
Besides raising the retirement age and means-testing benefits for higher-income seniors, Republicans have also proposed cutting some $400 billion from Medicare—after a year of lambasting Obama for cutting $716 billion.
And when it comes to Medicaid, Republicans have one proposal: block grant the money to the state. But why not allow beneficiaries to use their Medicaid allotment to buy into a Medicare Advantage program? Or private health insurance? Or have a Health Savings Account? Or let them choose their own drug coverage through a Medicare Part D plan?
What do Republicans plan to do about ObamaCare? There’re haven’t been any serious proposals in months.
The country desperately needs to reform the tax system, so what’s the Republican plan?
The country desperately needs to cut federal spending, so what would Republicans cut?
The country desperately needs to get control of the Federal Reserve Bank’s multi-trillion-dollar monetary expansion. What will Republicans do? The GOP platform called for auditing the Fed; do Republicans still want to?
To be sure, it is harder to set the national agenda without control of the White House, but the Republican ideas factory did it in 1993-94 when Clinton was president.
While some might disagree with the Republican leadership’s decision to pass a temporary suspension of the federal debt limit in exchange for a budget, and docking members’ pay if they didn’t, it was about the most original idea we’ve seen from them in a while.
If Republicans want to recapture the public’s support and trust, they will have to do it with bold new ideas that actually address the country’s problems. The GOP used to be an ideas machine; maybe with a little kick start it can be again.