The Contract from America

Pledge

We, the undersigned, call upon those seeking to represent us in public office to sign the Contract from America and by doing so commit to support each of its agenda items, work to bring each agenda item to a vote until all items are passed, and pledge to advocate on behalf of individual liberty, limited government, and economic freedom.

Individual Liberty
Our moral, political, and economic liberties are inherent, not granted by our government. It is essential to the practice of these liberties that we be free from restriction over our peaceful political expression and free from excessive control over our economic choices.

Limited Government
The purpose of our government is to exercise only those limited powers that have been relinquished to it by the people -- chief among these being the protection of our liberties by administering justice and ensuring our safety from threats arising inside or outside our country's sovereign borders. When our government ventures beyond these functions and attempts to increase its power over the marketplace and the economic decisions of individuals, our liberties are diminished and the probability of corruption, internal strife, economic depression, and poverty increases.

Economic Freedom
The most powerful, proven instrument of material and social progress is the free market. The market economy, driven by the accumulated expressions of individual economic choices, is the only economic system that preserves and enhances individual liberty. Any other economic system, regardless of its intended pragmatic benefits, undermines our fundamental rights as free people.

1. Protect the Constitution
Require each bill to identify the specific provision of the Constitution that gives Congress the power to do what the bill says.

2. Reject the EPA's Overreach
Stop costly new regulations that would increase unemployment, raise consumer prices, and weaken the nation's global competitiveness with virtually no impact on global temperatures.

3. Demand a Balanced Budget
Begin the Constitutional amendment process to require a balanced budget with a two-thirds majority needed for any tax hike.

4. Enact Fundamental Tax Reform
Adopt a simpler, flatter, and fairer tax system by scrapping the internal revenue code and replacing it with one that is easily understandable. Eliminate the death tax and cut the capital gains tax.

5. Restore Fiscal Responsibility & Constitutionally Limited Government in Washington
Execute a full independent audit of federal agencies and programs. Assess their Constitutionality, and identify duplication, waste, ineffectiveness. Determine which agencies and programs are better left to the states or local authorities to reform or eliminate, and restore limited government consistent with the US Constitution.

6. End Runaway Government Spending
Impose a statutory cap limiting the annual growth in total federal spending that balances the budget within 10 years.

7. Defund, Repeal, & Replace Government-run Health Care
Defund, repeal and replace the recently passed government-run health care with a system that actually makes health care and insurance more affordable by enabling a competitive, open, and transparent free-market health care and health insurance system that isn't restricted by state boundaries.

8. Pass an "All-of-the-Above" Energy Policy
Authorize the exploration of proven energy reserves to reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources from unstable countries and reduce regulatory barriers to all other forms of energy creation, lowering prices and creating competition and jobs.

9. Stop the Pork
End all earmarks.

10. Protect American's Privacy
Protect Americans' privacy, including data and any other records from government intrusion by prohibiting and criminally punishing any private or political use of data gained or distributed by government officials.

11. Stop Unconstitutional Executive Branch Power
Develop a plan to sunset federal regulations and limit the Executive Branch's power, which has grown substantially over the past decade.