The Patriot Post® · A Focus on Kitchen-Table Issues

“Everyone has a plan, until they get punched in the mouth.”

So said former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson before a big fight, and so it is with House Republicans, who hope to retake the lower chamber on November 8 and recapture the legislative agenda that has been set by Nancy Pelosi ever since the previous midterm election.

As for that plan, it’s called “The Commitment to America,” and it addresses four areas that might be called kitchen-table issues: an economy that’s strong; a nation that’s safe; a future that’s free; and a government that’s accountable. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy will formally unveil it in Pittsburgh on September 19.

As The Hill reports, “The ‘Commitment to America’ has been in the works for more than a year. McCarthy assigned more than half of the members of the GOP conference to different issue task forces, some of which have released legislative text and plan frameworks.”

“There’s no better time than now to inspire voters with a bold vision,” said Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts, “but it also requires a commitment to taking action once elected. Too often, politicians run on promises they fail to keep. We’re tired of the empty rhetoric and won’t settle for half-measures that fail to confront the great challenges facing America.”

Roberts is right about those great challenges, and Republicans are right to focus on them rather than letting the Democrats continue to do what they’ve done so far: distract the American people from their miserable legislative record and the disastrous presidency of Joe Biden. Instead, the Democrats are treating us to their unhealthy and all-consuming obsession with our nation’s previous president, Donald Trump.

The ultimate failure of the Democrats, and the ultimate kitchen-table issue, is the economy, and as House Republicans remind us on this fact sheet, inflation has increased nearly 550% since Joe Biden took office 19 months ago; government spending has increased by $9 trillion; and year-over-year food prices are up more than 12%, which is the largest increase in American history.

Indeed, the number-one issue on voters’ minds is inflation, and the Democrats’ recent efforts — headlined by the Orwellian “Inflation Reduction Act” — have made it demonstrably worse.

Elsewhere in economic matters, the Biden administration has waged war on domestic energy production and thus American energy independence; gas prices are still way too high; fertilizer prices are up 30%; and our nation’s supply chain is still a mess.

Beyond the economy are issues of safety and security, which includes our porous southern border and the Democrats’ intentional failure to secure it. Indeed, they just keep lying about it, hoping you’ll focus on Donald Trump’s documents rather than the three million illegal border apprehensions, the 800,000 known “got aways,” and the 150 countries represented by illegal immigrants. Here, too, the Republicans have a fact sheet and a plan that includes finishing the wall and restoring Donald Trump’s highly successful “Remain in Mexico” policy.

A free American future, according to House Republicans, includes parental rights in their children’s education and freedom from leftist indoctrination, and the reining in of Big Tech as a suppressor of speech.

As for a government that’s accountable, the Republican fact sheet spells out the transgressions of the Biden administration and the failure of House Democrats to assert their Article I priorities and provide constitutional oversight.

Clearly, something’s terribly wrong, and House Republicans think they can fix it. We’re not so sure. Yes, a House controlled by Republicans is infinitely better than a House controlled by Democrats. Yes, Republicans would have the power of the purse. And, yes, they’d control the committees and exercise oversight and issue plenty of subpoenas. But Joe Biden will still be in the White House, and he’ll still have veto power over any Republican-passed bill. That’s the punch in the mouth that would await newly empowered House Republicans.

Still, there’s much to gain by retaking the People’s House. And House Republicans are right to publish their “Commitment to America,” and to draw the sharp kitchen-table distinctions between their pro-growth, limited-government, Rule-of-Law policies and the ruinous alternatives currently in play under Democrat leadership.