A GOP Contract with America for 2010

Similar to 1994's Contract with America, the GOP needs to provide voters with a platform spelling out their plans to create jobs and fix health reform.

My latest column for CNN.com argues that similar to 1994's Contract with America, Republicans need to present voters with a platform.  A manifesto emphasizing the GOP's plans to create jobs, tackle the debt and correct the mistakes in the president's health reform plans could provide the party with a blueprint for governing.

Eight weeks to Election Day, and still no sign of an updated "Contract with America," the famous Republican campaign manifesto of 1994.

Party strategists may have decided they don't need a manifesto: they are winning without one. They may also find it too difficult to agree on the manifesto's content: how do you appeal to Tea Party radicals and swing voters at the same time?

Post-election, though, Republicans will be sorry. The Contract with America helped to discipline the new Republican majority of 1994, enabling Republicans to help achieve important things: welfare reform, a cut in the capital gains tax, a balanced budget.

If Republican majorities arrive in Washington in 2011 without a program, the risk is very real they will fall into trouble: pick the wrong fights with the administration, fail to deliver results, share the blame if employment continues to lag.

With those concerns in mind, let me outline what I think would be a constructive GOP platform for 2010. ...

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