The Women's Freedom Network Newsletter November/December 2002, Volume 7, No. 6 WOMEN'S FREEDOM NETWORK TOWN HALL MEETING Governmental Gridlock by Steve Moore is the president of and chief lobbyist for the Club for Growth, a Libertarian political action committee in Washington, D.C. The Club for Growth has been a boon for several GOP candidates and a thorn in the side of others. A proponent of supply-side “Reaganomics”, Moore has also been associated with the Cato Institute and the Heritage Foundation.

P eople voted for grid lock. There was obviously no preference for either the Republican or the Democratic party. I have always said that what we have had for the last six years has been an ideal situation, Bill Clinton in the White House with a Republican Congress. Both camps could not get their respective agendas accomplished. Yet, this is the greatest period of prosperity in the history of the civilized world. Thus, it seems rational to argue that as Americans we should want Congress and the President to effect as little change as possible.

"The central challenge for the Bush administration, will be to keep the expansion going"

Arthur Lapper says, "When you are in the groove, economically, you want to stay in the groove. You do not want dramatic changes." The reason this election turned out the way it did is because people do not want dramatic changes. Maintaining the status quo is what the next President and the next Congress must do. The central challenge for the Bush administration, should Bush win the White House, will be to keep the expansion going. The next two years will be very crucial. If the Republicans fail to keep expanding, they will be voted out of office.

In my work on tax cuts and social security reform, I found poll data very telling. An exit poll showed that for people who claimed taxes to be a big issue for them, Bush won 87 percent of their votes. Also, an ABC exit poll revealed that 54 percent of the voters said they preferred the Bush tax plan to the 41 percent who voted for Gore's plan. An ABC exit poll showed that 58 percent of the voters favored Bush's social security plan to invest in private accounts whereas only 36 percent voted against the Bush plan. This data tells us that Bush has somewhat of a mandate to go forward with his tax and social security plans if he becomes President. But, neither Gore nor Bush is going to do much harm to the American people because we are in a groove and I think we will stay in this groove regardless of whoever becomes President.