Pirate's Cove

There are many reasons to vote Trump, either because you like the guy, because you simply want a (supposed) Republican, or because you cannot stand the though of Hillary in office. You know the reasons by now. What about something else, though? Rep. Keith Rothfus (R-Pa) is one of the Republicans tasked with offering the idea

Another important thing we have done is to develop a first-of-its-kind platform: A Better Way. If implemented, A Better Way would not only restore American leadership in the world, it would generate a true economic expansion that would lift wages, increase job opportunities and generate revenues that will help us keep the commitments we’ve made to our seniors and veterans.

But our proposals for health care, tax and regulatory reform, strengthening security and generating upward mobility will only become reality if someone in the White House signs our legislation. That is the fulcrum on which we sit. We simply cannot afford another four years of sputtering zero to 2% economic growth. That is the consequence if A Better Way is not enacted into law. Hillary Clinton’s status quo, big-government policies will only lead to more debt, doubt and decline.

While I appreciate the concerns I hear from some constituents and fellow members about the choices the American people face this November, I encourage everyone to consider something that has been missing in this debate. It actually concerns one of the planks in our Better Way platform, and that has to do with the people with which I serve — the members of the United States Congress.

In A Better Way, we describe how Congress can reclaim its constitutional responsibilities. Those responsibilities go to the heart of the notion of self-rule. Our Founders recognized that in our country, the people are the sovereign. The people exercise that sovereignty through elected representatives, who in turn enact laws to which the people are subject. If the people do not consent to those laws, they can change their representatives.

What does it all come down to?

Our regulatory, administrative superstate, however, has replaced the sovereignty of the American people with the sovereignty of unelected and unaccountable Washington bureaucrats. While the American people can replace the members of Congress, they cannot replace the unelected bureaucrats who have promulgated 600 major rules over the last seven years that will have an estimated cost of billions to implement. Those rules are among the man-made headwinds that are strangling economic growth, keeping wages stagnant and forcing jobs overseas.

When you couple the regulatory leviathan with our broken appropriations process, where Congress gets cornered into take-it-or-leave-it omnibus spending bills that grotesquely limit its spending power, the legislative branch today exercises far less authority than the Constitution grants to it.

What then, of the Presidential election? The simple fact is that only one of the candidates will sign our proposals. Indeed, Donald Trump has committed to signing the REINS Act, which requires congressional approval before major rules and regulations become effective. Significantly, the REINS Act represents the most far-reaching restoration of congressional constitutional authority in history.

Cathy McMorris Rodgers also takes a stab at this

One of the most egregious causes of this consistent growth is the pervasiveness of what is referred to as “unauthorized spending.”

Congressional rules are supposed to preclude the appropriation of funds for anything that isn’t created by an “authorization bill,” which gives agencies, programs and projects a legal basis for their existence. These authorizations are usually for a set time period, after which these entities must be authorized again. Only after passing these bills is Congress supposed to allocate taxpayer money to fund them.

This process is specifically designed so lawmakers weed out duplication across departments and agencies, cut obsolete programs and reform those that are functioning improperly. Too often, however, lawmakers simply ignore that critical first step, breaking the rules that are supposed to govern their actions. Every year, Congress fails to authorize huge swaths of the federal government while continuing to throw money at them.

I do have to ask: who has controlled the purse strings for years, and done little to nothing? That said, there was only so much they could do in rolling back the crazy spending, and they do need help from a Republican president.

The only questions is, would they actually abide by this? Another is, who does this play to? It’s too complicated an issue to engage the casual political observer on. Much like immigration, it is aimed at typical Republican voters, including those who are on the fence regarding Trump and those who are #NeverTrump.

If they want to succeed, they have to boil the message down to simple terms, ones about reducing the onerous federal government in citizen’s lives, as well as put it in economic terms. How does this put money in citizen’s pockets? I’ll say it again: the #1 talking point needs to be the bread and butter economy, how things can help citizens.

Read: Republicans Offer Different Reason To Vote Trump »