Senior Fellow Newt Gingrich

One decade ago, Republican candidates swept into the majority in the House of Representatives partly on the strength of the Contract with America, a campaign promise to bring ten bills onto the floor of the House of Representatives that were designed to make Congress more open and responsive to voters. AEI's Newt Gingrich, who became Speaker of the House as a result of that victory, and several of his deputies gathered at a September 27 AEI conference to measure the success of the contract and its effect on today's legislative affairs. They were joined by Michael Barone of U.S. News & World Report.

Chesapeake Associates' Joseph Gaylord, formerly a top adviser to Gingrich, noted that the contract allowed Republican candidates to organize around a set of core principles in which they firmly believed and helped the Republican Party gather the financial resources required for such a sweeping congressional victory in 1994.

Barone noted that a rash of Democratic retirements, rising discontent with the entrenched Democratic majority, redistricting that favored Republicans more frequently than in previous years, and the shift of Southern support from Democrats to Republicans also contributed to the contract's success in 1994. Congresswoman Jennifer Dunn (R-Wash.) noted that passing the contract made laws for the public applicable to members of Congress, provided greater oversight of congressional spending, decreased the number of House committees, and opened committee meetings to the public. She highlighted welfare reform as the most important achievement of the new Republican Congress, as the reform has cut welfare rolls in half since becoming law.

Gingrich considered the effects of the contract on today's congressional races. When asked whether a similar document of principles could assist 2004 Democratic congressional candidates, Gingrich responded that presidential candidates, not congressional leaders, set the agenda during presidential election years. According to Gingrich, the Republicans had an advantage in 1994 over today's Democratic minority: while many voters in this election may believe America is on the wrong track, they do not blame President George W. Bush as they did with then-president Bill Clinton in 1994. Gingrich contended that while the contract's principles polled in the 70- to 80-percent approval range, today's Democrats often fall on the opposite side of many issues from majorities of the American public.

Gingrich and former House majority leader Dick Armey, now of FreedomWorks, discussed the current problems of budget deficits and the lack of comity in Congress. Gingrich argued that "any future conservative movement has to have a clear, coherent plan for getting back to a balanced budget," adding that it can only be done, as in the past, by cutting taxes, not raising them. When asked if he and his fellow contract architects felt responsible for the reputed lack of bipartisan cooperation in Washington, Armey admitted that congressional Republicans of the 1990s did not always handle their newfound majority status well but chastised congressional Democrats for rebuffing President Bush's efforts to reach across the aisle after early bipartisan successes such as the No Child Left Behind Act. Moderator Tony Blankely, a former Gingrich lieutenant, agreed and urged members of Congress to review the history of Congress and observe the protocols laid out for debate in order to recover an atmosphere of political civility.