Young Guns : A New Generation of Conservative Leaders (3 page)

KM:
That government knows better.

PR:
It’s completely antithetical to what this country is about.

EC:
They really believe there is an inherent unfairness in the free market and that they need to be the ones to intervene to right the wrongs of the markets and of the big bad world of business. They believe that some people make too much money, others don’t. They believe they’re here to accomplish equal outcomes, not equal opportunity.

KM:
Look at President Obama. Who has been close to him? Trial lawyers, unions, community organizers. All three are redistributers of wealth, not creators of wealth. So in his mind he’s always thought, “I need to redistribute wealth. I don’t need to worry about creating wealth, because that just always happens.”

PR:
It’s a fundamental misunderstanding of human nature and of the concepts of liberty, freedom, and self-determination. It’s a fundamental misunderstanding of economics. He believes that the pie is fixed and that he needs to more equitably divide up the slices.

KM:
He doesn’t believe in growing the pie.

PR:
They’re making a political calculation. Right now, we are a right-of-center country. But if they can create the newest and biggest entitlement we’ve ever had they can take us past the tipping point, after which more people are takers rather than makers—more people are living off the state than are living independent of it. I believe they think the orientation of the country will turn and become a left-of-center country. This is an investment in their future. They’re going to take some short-term losses but they will come back because they are completing the vision they have for this country.

KM:
They think if they make government so large and the debt so big it will be impossible to reverse it.

PR:
The American government, in their minds, isn’t nearly as big as it ought to be compared to our Western European counterparts. We’re historically at 20 percent of GDP. They think we ought to go to 30 percent of GDP for the federal government. You add in state and local government and you’re at 50 percent of GDP and that’s where Europe is.

EC:
This time in the minority has given us all a chance to remember why we came here. It’s given us the chance—especially in comparison with what the Democrats are doing—to see what has worked in this country, which is entrepreneurship, free markets, and a level playing field. We need to refocus our party toward the future and the young people. It’s up to us to provide them with more opportunity. I hear it again and again when I go home. Right now kids are getting out of college and they’re not finding jobs. So if we reclaim the majority in November, we must, first of all, tell the public what they can expect from us. And we also have to realize that this isn’t going to be a one- or two-year process. We have got to rebuild the public’s trust through taking concrete steps to get our fiscal house in order. We have to show that we get it. Clearly the other side has demonstrated that they don’t get where the public is. We’ve got to reconnect and inspire people.

PR:
The American people still love the American idea. And the American idea is at risk today. So in this election and in the 2012 election we have to give the American people a very clear agenda based upon our actions and our principles. We have to give them a very clear choice.

KM:
That’s why I think the time is right. You value things the most when you lose them. Who would have thought America could be going the way it’s going now? With government taking over businesses? With government taking over health care? We’ve always believed in freedom as a country but now we’re starting to understand that we have to fight for it.

PR:
If we get this majority, we have to build on it. We have to go to the American people with an agreement. We’ve got to show how we can restore this country’s greatness by reasserting and reapplying its principles.

EC:
What we have to do is lay out an agenda toward which we can lead the people and they’ll come along and back us. People get that there is unsustainable spending going on; that we’re spending money we don’t have right now. But I don’t think most people wake up in the morning and think about our entitlement programs crashing. We have to be able to connect that circumstance with their everyday lives. That has to be the impetus for us to begin to devolve power back to the states.

KM:
It’s unshackling the grip that Washington has on so much of our lives.

EC:
Right, but we’re going to have to be able to go to the people and demonstrate how that helps them. Like in the area of education. Joe Pitts [R-PA] has a program he’s worked on for years that’s all about dollars in the schools and dollars in the classrooms, not dollars to the unions and the bureaucracy. We have to go to parents and say we are about letting the local schools get more dollars and that means don’t let the dollars be trapped here in Washington. Same thing with transportation.

PR:
People think that their country is slipping away from them. They think that their future is not going to be as bright. So they’re ready to embrace a reclamation of what made this country great. And if we get back into the majority we cannot fall from this fight. We can’t be intimidated. We can’t worry about the demagoguery and the negative ads we’re going to get.

KM:
But you also have to create a system that allows your changes to endure. It goes back to what Eric said about education. The average salary in the Department of Education right down the street here is $103,000. That’s the average salary of the employee that works there. Wouldn’t that money be better spent in the classroom?

EC:
You get a double benefit from ending that. If you’re going to keep dollars in the classrooms, not only are you benefiting the kids but you’re also reducing the size of Washington, which helps to get rid of the corruption and the cronyism and the self-perpetuating nature of power here.

KM:
We have four million more government jobs in America than manufacturing jobs. That is an upside-down model.

PR:
That’s right. People are getting a glimpse of what this country could become. They know that’s not who we are. They know that’s not reaching our potential. I think people are ready if we show them a party of leadership and of principle and an agenda that gets it.

KM:
It has to be accountable.

PR:
We have to give the American people a referendum. We will win this referendum if we have it now. If we wait and delay five or six years we will lose this referendum. The public is way ahead of the political class. They get that things are broken. They get that we’re spending their kids’ inheritance and mortgaging their future. They are ready to be talked to like adults and not like children. So, when they see the demagoguery that is directed toward people or ideas that are sincere and are real, it doesn’t work anymore. The Democrats are going to come at us with their old playbook. They’re going to tap into the emotions of fear, anger, and envy. But that’s not aspirational. That’s not hope and change, and I don’t think it’s going to work anymore.

EC:
There is a test for us though. This country is changing demographically. This country is growing older and we’ve been in an entitlement mindset for a while. That’s what we’re going to change. We’re going to be about an opportunity future, not an entitlement future. That’s why it’s important that we go out and make the case to those nearing retirement that they’re not going to be denied what they have coming.

PR:
But if we act now, it won’t be all root canal. This is growth, this is opportunity, this is hope. This is maintaining our commitments to those who are nearing retirement. If we act now, we can honor those commitments. If we don’t act, we won’t be able to.

PART ONE
 
 
CONGRESSMAN
ERIC CANTOR

CHAPTER ONE
A Party on the Bridge to Nowhere
 
 

A Jewish guy from Virginia, an Irish-Catholic from Wisconsin, and a California Baptist walk into Congress.…

It sounds like the beginning of an old joke, but we’d like to think it’s the start of something new.

Paul, Kevin, and I are, as Bill Murray famously said to his demoralized fellow recruits on graduation day in
Stripes
, “very different people. We’re not Watusi. We’re not Spartans. We’re Americans, with a capital ‘A.’” The three of us came to the United States House of Representatives from very different places. No one will ever mistake Janesville, Wisconsin (or Richmond, Virginia, for that matter), for Bakersfield, California. We also come from very different backgrounds. I pray on Saturday with a Southern accent. Paul and Kevin go to church on Sunday and talk to God without dropping their “gs.”

What we have in common is our love for this country and the principles that made it great. From our different vantage points, we’ve seen both parties abandon these principles and lead America down a perilous path. We’ve seen Republicans who claim to believe in limited government spend the taxpayers’ money like teenagers with their parents’ credit card. We’ve seen Democrats who claim to want only government that “works” never pass up an opportunity to make government bigger and more intrusive. We’ve seen both parties ignore the needs of Americans while they concentrate on doing favors for the special interests that get them reelected, whether it’s unions, corporations, or any of the army of lobbyists encamped on Capitol Hill.

Don’t get me wrong. We’re proud Republicans. We just believe that our party has at times lost sight of the things we believe in, ideas like economic freedom, limited government, the sanctity of life, and putting families first. America needs new leaders with new solutions for the challenges we face. We don’t expect
The New York Times
to agree with us, but we believe these leaders and these solutions can’t come from the party in control of Washington today. They have to come from the party whose principles are firmly grounded in encouraging private sector job creation, in maximizing individual freedom—whether it’s the freedom to choose your own doctor or the freedom to choose the school for your kids—and in giving all Americans the opportunity to build a better future for their children. That
party is the party of Lincoln and Reagan; it’s the party of Rubio, Jindal, and Daniels.

We believe it’s time for Republicans to reconnect with our principles, reinvigorate our message, and show our true face to America. We respect those who came before us, but as far as Paul, Kevin, and I are concerned, America is looking for more than our grandfather’s Republican Party. The wonderful irony of America is that it is a dynamic, diverse, and changing country that was founded on timeless, unchanging ideas. We’re ready to take our belief in the ideas that have made America great and translate them into the solutions that will make our future even better.