The conservative "Silent Majority" begins to get it's voice heard . . . . . finally!

[PHILIP SCHNEIDER]

It's Time to Get to Work

My fellow conservatives,

The people have spoken. Reckless spending, stifling regulations,
ever-rising taxes, endless debt and the looming government takeover of
health care have brought this nation to a tipping point. Not
surprisingly, the
American people have now taken matters into their own hands.

How
we got to that tipping
point is clear. For too long, Washington’s preening elites have assumed
that they knew best and that government was in itself the all-purpose
solution to every perceived problem.

But the
American people have a collective wisdom, and they expressed it
yesterday. They took a stand and decided on a new direction because
continuing down
the path we’re currently on would mean the end of the American Dream.

They repudiated “change” that denies our character and tradition, and
called instead for an American Renewal
that taps our values. The message that came out of this election, I can
assure you, was heard around the world. Everyone now knows that
Americans
remain a strong and free people, unbowed by adversity and unwilling to
exchange their birthright of liberty for a perpetual stew of
bureaucratic rule
and government dependency.

But let’s be
clear, now we must all get to work. The new Congress has a choice:
answer the call of renewal or betray the hopes of the American people.
It is time
for conservatives to be conservative, and not backslide.

We here at The Heritage Foundation are inspired by your commitment to
America’s principles, and bolstered by your demand for practical,
conservative solutions to our common problems. We and our 700,000
members will work day and night to make sure Washington has heard you,
too, for now
the real work begins.

There is much work to be
done by the new Congress. Heritage is issuing a set of five simple
actions Congress must take in order to meet this mandate of the
American people.
These five priorities represent the bare minimum of what is expected of
our new representatives. More will need to be done to get our nation
back on
the right track, but taking these actions represent a good start.
This list, which we call “Solutions for America: Get to Work”, is comprised of the following calls to action:

• FREEZE AND CUT SPENDING: Congress should immediately freeze discretionary budget authority at 2010 levels; and cut at least $170
  billion from the federal budget for fiscal year 2012. This is only a
  first step. In the past four years, Congress has approved more spending
  that even
  the bureaucrats can handle. Congress must immediately survey the
  unobligated balances of all appropriations made in the past four years
  and should
  reclaim these unspent taxpayer funds and use them to reduce the deficit.
• REPEAL OBAMACARE: Congress must immediately pass a bill that repeals Obamacare. Until
  Congress is able to get the President to sign a law repealing
  Obamacare, it must
  withhold funding, block key provisions and override regulations
  carrying out Obamacare. Only after Obamacare is rejected, can Congress
  undertake a
  careful, thoughtful legislative process to make practical adjustments
  that allow the free market to provide affordable, effective health care
  insurance choices.
• STOP THE OBAMA TAX HIKES: Congress must reject the Obama tax hikes, and make permanent the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, thereby helping the economy grow and create more jobs.
• PROTECT AMERICA: Congress must pass a budget resolution that won’t put our troops at risk or leave Americans vulnerable. It can do this
  by providing for defense an average of $720 billion per year (to be
  adjusted for inflation) for each of the next five fiscal years, in
  addition to the
  funding needed for ongoing contingency operations. Congress must make
  the defense budget as efficient as possible and reinvest dollars
  achieved from
  reforms in the military to offset the cost of modernizing and
  developing next-generation equipment.
• GET CONTROL OF GOVERNMENT: Congress must immediately reestablish legislative accountability by posting complete legislation, ending
  earmarks,
  reviewing all unauthorized programs and respecting constitutional
  limits on government. Congress must check executive branch overreach
  with aggressive
  oversight, roll back recent government interventions, stop unnecessary
  administrative regulations and sunset new ones, restrict bureaucrats’
  rulemaking authority and override executive orders.

Each of these things must be done if Washington is to fulfill its electoral mandate and meet its constitutional responsibilities.

We must not
underestimate the difficulty of this task. This is but the beginning of
a long recovery and renewal. There’s much to be done. We need to put an
end to the crony capitalism that permeates so many of the outrages of
these past two years. Government elites should not be picking winners
and
losers, giving bailouts to GM and waivers of the health care law to
McDonald’s.

We must return to the states the authority and flexibility to solve
problems best resolved at that level of
government. Replace federal failure and incompetence with state
ingenuity custom-tailored to solve local problems.

Many will say it cannot be done, and some will demean the people and
trivialize their
objectives. They will do so at their peril. That attitude ignores what
has just taken place. Let us never overlook our noble purpose: to
restore
America, rebuild its limited government and revive a nation of
unlimited possibilities–where freedom, opportunity, prosperity, and
civil society
flourish.

This is a pivotal time. The public mind
is engaged, and the eyes of the people are on Washington to see if
their government will listen to them once again. We must seize the
moment, or the
moment will be lost, and so might our country.

Americans have reached back to their roots and history to rediscover
their traditions and values. There’s a reason the Tea Party took a name
from one of our earliest revolutionary events. One of the worst things
our President has done in his two years in office—on top of the
spending,
the overreach of health care and the inability to allow the private
sector to create jobs—has been in comment after comment to disparage
the
people, their wisdom and their intelligence.

We must remain committed, stay focused, be ever vigilant — and keep the faith.

Help turn this country around and tell lawmakers in Washington: Get to work.

Sincerely,

Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.D.
President
The Heritage Foundation