Issues for the Millennium

Republicans must offer a realizable vision of hope, growth and opportunity to win in 2000.

by Rod D. Martin
December 8, 1999

Republicans must offer a realizable vision of hope, growth and opportunity to win in 2000. This is the lesson of two Reagan landslides and the Contract With America. It is also the grim lesson of 1996 and '98.

To define such a vision, we must give preference to those issues which will fundamentally improve America, which are easily explained and yet rooted in principle, and which may actually be implemented in the near term. The American people are tired of palaver: they want results. And their fundamental common sense gives conservatives an incredible opportunity next year, if conservatives are willing to shed the Beltway gobbledy-gook and return to their Reagan roots.

Hence, this roadmap to a better America.

1. We want less government and lower, fairer taxes. There can be no compromise here: just ask George Bush. And both goals can be accomplished by a single reform: the flat tax, with an abolition of withholding.

A flat tax that's a tax cut will restore …