To mark the 10th anniversary, 18 experts―including two key leaders of the Republican revolution, Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey―rexamine the successes and failures of the Republican revolution.

THE REPUBLICAN REVOLUTION 10 YEARS LATER

Smaller Government or Business as Usual?

CATO INSTITUTE

Copyright © 2005 Cato Institute
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-930865-69-3

Contents

Introduction Chris Edwards and John Samples...............................................................................vii1. The GOP Revolution Holds Powerful Lessons for Changing Washington Newt Gingrich........................................12. Reflections on the Republican Revolution Richard Armey.................................................................53. The Republican Congress in Historical Context Edward H. Crane..........................................................174. Same as the Old Boss? Congressional Reforms under the Republicans John Samples.........................................235. Social Policy, Supply-Side, and Fundamental Reform: Republican Tax Policy, 1994-2004 Chris Edwards.....................376. The Federal Budget 10 Years Later: The Triumph of Big Government Stephen Moore.........................................597. A Decade of Republican Trade Policy: A Modest Record of Accomplishment Daniel Griswold.................................738. The Long, Winding Road to Social Security Reform Michael Tanner........................................................919. Welfare Reform: The Biggest Accomplishment of the Revolution Ron Haskins...............................................9910. Health Care: The Revolution's Mitigated Disaster Michael F. Cannon....................................................14111. Federal Education Policy in the GOP Congress David Salisbury..........................................................15712. The Nonrevolution In Telecommunications And Technology Policy Adam D. Thierer.........................................16913. The Revolution Spins Toward More Regulation Clyde Wayne Crews Jr......................................................19514. The GOP'S Environmental Record Jerry Taylor...........................................................................20515. A Smooth Transition: Crime, Federalism, and the GOP Timothy Lynch.....................................................21316. The Road Not Taken: The Republican National Security Strategy Christopher Preble......................................223Contributors...............................................................................................................239Index......................................................................................................................241

Chapter One

The GOP Revolution Holds Powerful Lessons for Changing Washington

Newt Gingrich

I see the 1994 Republican victory as part three of a long process. Part one includes Barry Goldwater's 1960 book, Conscience of a Conservative, and the Goldwater movement that took control of the Republican Party in 1964. Part two was Ronald Reagan's rise from the 1964 film A Time for Choosing through his presidency. Part three was the election of 1994.

I came to Washington in the middle of this process in 1978 and proposed the then radical idea that the Republicans could become the majority in Congress. It took the GOP 16 years. Thus, if you want to get big things done in Washington but say you only have a weekend, you will not be successful.

Hard Work over a Long Period of Time

Our victory in 1994 was a product not only of conservative theory, but also of brutally hard work over a very long period of time. The work put into the Contract with America was central to our success. The Contract focused our candidates, whose otherwise natural tendency was to attack President Bill Clinton. But we knew that if we were negative, if we were the anti-Clinton party, all the Ross Perot voters would stay home.

The Contract gave relatively untested candidates powerful issues to cling to in the last 40 days of the campaign. The phrases "I am for a balanced budget; I am for a tax cut; I am for a stronger military; I am for welfare reform" were a shield with which our candidates could surround themselves, keeping them out of trouble and on message. Some of the historic personal efforts that led to victory included Dick Armey's work to build a consensus within the party on the Contract and Bill Paxon's and Joe Gaylord's work on the training and planning side of the 1994 campaign.

Change on the scale of 1994 required major teamwork and organization. The most important single event in the lead-up to 1994 was a dinner where Tom DeLay, Bob Walker, Dick Armey, Bill Paxon, and I agreed to put our differences aside and work together. If that team had not existed, we would not have had the energy to win control of the House.

To understand the role of teamwork and organization for the success in 1994, you have to go back and look at the role of GOPAC (a training organization for Republican candidates), from when Pete DuPont founded it, to when Bo Callaway chaired it, through when Gay Gaines took over. You have to look at the role of the Conservative Opportunity Society, which Vin Weber, Duncan Hunter, Bob Walker, Connie Mack, and others helped create. You have to look at the role of the Key Leader Team that grew up late in the cycle, thanks to the efforts of Dick Armey.

Florence Weston's The Presidential Election of 1828, which was required reading for everyone in those organizations, points out that to seize power from the establishment, the Jacksonians had to organize on such a scale that they simply drowned out the old order. If you look at what we did with GOPAC, what we did with Haley Barbour at the Republican National Committee, and what we tried to do inside the House, you'll see a very similar pattern that continued for about a decade.

Working outside the Republican Establishment

Throughout a long process of hard work and intense opposition, we developed a mantra that became essential to our success: cheerful persistence. We were a minority inside a minority. All our work was done against the active, continuing opposition of the traditional party. From the time I was sworn in through winning the race to become House Whip in 1989, the GOP establishment was opposed to what we were doing. They branded us radicals because we actually thought we could become a majority, were willing to fight for that goal, and proudly used the word "conservative." So not only were we being beaten up by the Democrats and ignored by the news media, we were being pressured by senior Republicans.

While training our new members in this period of tension, we discovered two things. First, to get anything done you must be persistent. Second, if you want people to work with you, you must be cheerful. When Joe Barton arrived on the scene, the first thing he was told by the leader of the Texas delegation was never to work with the Conservative Opportunity Society. He smiled and replied, "Gee, the reason I came was to work with COS." And he did. Cheerful persistence won the day.

We also realized that in order to gain control, we had to build new coalitions and develop consensus. In addition to Weston's book, Norman H. Nie's The Changing American Voter was required reading for all of us who sought to gain a majority. The book argues that the way you get new majorities is to arouse a base that is not used to voting. People who dismiss our victory as a fluke do not study our base very often, but we had nine million additional votes in 1994, the largest one-party increase in American history. There is a huge pool of uncommitted voters who have no...