“Cut Government Spending to Pre-Stimulus, Pre-Bailout Levels:  With common-sense exceptions for seniors, veterans, and our troops, we will roll back government spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels, saving us at least $100 billion in the first year alone and putting us on a path to begin paying down the debt, balancing the budget, and ending the spending spree in Washington that threatens our children’s future.

End Government Control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac:  Since taking over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage companies that triggered the financial meltdown by giving too many high risk loans to people who couldn’t afford them, taxpayers were billed more than $145 billion to save the two companies.  We will reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by ending their government takeover, shrinking their portfolios, and establishing minimum capital standards.  This will save taxpayers as much as $30 billion.”  http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/text-gops-new-pledge-america?page=2

However now that your new Republican majority has taken control of Congress, you seem to suddenly have developed selective amnesia regarding promises contained in the Pledge and the responsibility instilled in you and the Republican Party by the voters on November 2, 2010; who entrusted the adoption of fiscally conservative budget policies and an immediate move to solve the GSE problem.

Scott Garrett, Chair of the House Financial Services, Capital Markets and GSE Committee and apparently according to the Wall Street Journal Spencer Baucus, Chair of House Financial Services Committee are now planning to stall Freddie and Fannie reform and privatization.   “”We recognize that some things can be done overnight and other things can’t be,” said Rep. Scott Garrett (R., N.J.), incoming chairman of the House Financial Services subcommittee, which oversees Fannie and Freddie.  “You have to recognize what the impact would be on the fragile housing market as it stands right now.””  http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/12/why-are-republicans-changing-their-tune-on-fannie-and-freddie/68651/#  And just as the Democrats and Barney Frank have orchestrated inaction over the past two years, the Republicans are now suggesting little or no immediate action and relenting on their specific Pledge promise.
 
Perhaps most egregious is the move by John Mica, Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to resurrect Build America Bonds which States like California, Illinois and New York have abused to the tune of nearly $200B since 2009, supplementing their cash flow without paring State spending and ultimately using it to subsidize their budget deficits.  “Representative John Mica, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman, plans to introduce a “reincarnation” of the Build America Bonds program, set to expire Dec. 31.  “I can almost guarantee a reiteration of the Build America Bond program,” Mica, a Florida Republican, said in an interview in Washington today. “We’re working to find a reincarnation.””  http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-12-28/build-america-to-see-reincarnation-effort-mica-says.html  So again the promised Republican budget cuts on wasteful spending in the Pledge were apparently simply a electoral gimmick.

Mr Speaker, I found it incredible today to read in the Wall Street Journal, “House Rules Revisited” (January 11, 2011) , that you only not strong armed a vote against the Amendment which would have assured and codifed $100 Billion in spending cuts and didn’t even give Congressman Ryan the courtesy of speaking on behalf of the $100 Billion Spending Cut Amendment.  I would have expected such heavy handed action from your predecessor, but I am shocked that you would do so and renege on the Republican Pledge, especially in the first week of the new 2011 House session.
 
I contributed, voted, and believed in the Republican’s intent to deliver on the  Party’s Pledge in the past election campaign and I had high expectations that those promises would be readily and eagerly delivered.  Apparently, I was naive and it was simply just another example of the never ending political rhetoric and Washington, DC’s “business as usual” regimen.

Well, I am unlikely to vote Democrat in the next election even given  my new found frustration and likely continuing frustration with the Republican Party.  You are not likely to miss the meager contributions I made to seven Republican candidates, nor will you miss my vote, which I will likely cast far more carefully and sparingly for the Republican ticket in the next election cycle than I did in the past November election.   But I suspect that there are millions of Americans like me who believed in your promises, believed in the Pledge and its expressed  intentions, and who enthusiastically supported Republicans expecting its enactment.  I suspect most of those American voters will become similarly disillusioned given your recent actions and I suspect that the enthusiasm we delivered to the Republican Party in the 2010 election will be sorely missed in 2012 with persistence of the current course of action by the Republican leadership!