House GOP’s ‘Commitment to America’ Agenda Gets Mixed Reviews From Conservative Experts

Conservative analysts gave House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) “Commitment to America”—a legislative agenda if Republicans gain control of the House in the November midterms—a mixed reception based, in part, on the lack of specifics to get the United States’ economic woes under control.

McCarthy officially unveiled the agenda in a speech at Monongahela, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 23. The plan laid out general policy recommendations in four key areas: a strong economy, safe communities, more individual freedom, and more accountable government.

The country is facing historically-high inflation, a slowing economy, demographic problems such as an aging workforce, and a ballooning budget deficit to go along with an unprecedented national debt that could burst into an economic crisis at any moment, said some experts, who believed McCarthy should do more to recognize that.

While the overall reception among the analysts was positive, some called for specific improvements to the platform to address problems immediately, and not just leave those issues to the next Congress.

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, however, praised the release of the plan, saying it represented the restoration of the role of Congress.

“I always tell members of the House that they work with the presidents, that they don’t work for the presidents,” Gingrich told the Epoch Times, adding that he made himself available to GOP House members as they developed the platform this year.

Gingrich is widely credited with the takeover of the House in the 1994 midterm elections using his “Contract with America,” a legislative agenda that committed the Republican Party to certain actions if they won a majority in that chamber.

In a 1994 speech at the steps of the Capitol, Gingrich in introducing the agenda said that there was “no comparable congressional document in our two-hundred-year history.” The plan sought to roll back

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