User talk:Vmhacker

My immediate goal is to improve the Contract with America page.

The page is confusing because there were two parts of it. The first is a list of laws to pass on the first day (did they do that?) but is ignored in the discussion. The second is a list of laws to pass in the first hundred days. This is discussed in the article.

The first list is:

Government reform
On the first day of their majority, the Republicans promised to hold floor votes on eight reforms of government operations:

This was passed as |TOM:/bss/104search.html| H.R.1 of 1985. It did not make congress apply all laws to congress, only "certain" laws. It became law.
 * require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply to Congress;

|TOM:/bss/104search.html| H.Res.26 was responsive to this. It covered only the income tax.
 * select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of Congress for waste, fraud or abuse;
 * cut the number of House committees, and cut committee staff by one-third;
 * limit the terms of all committee chairs;
 * ban the casting of proxy votes in committee;
 * require committee meetings to be open to the public;
 * require a three-fifths majority vote to pass a tax increase;
 * and implement a zero base-line budgeting process for the annual Federal Budget.