In Latest RIPON FORUM, Members of the GOP Class of 2010 Discuss their Mission in Washington and Goals for the Rest of this Year

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sixteen months after taking office, Members of the Republican Class of 2010 take to the pages ofTHE RIPON FORUM to discuss their mission in Washington and their goals for the rest of the year.

“Our Founders created a system of government in which it would be very, very difficult to ever make a dramatic change,” writes Congressman Rich Nugent (FL-5), in one of four original essays penned by GOP freshman for this latest edition. “But now, the problem we face (and the frustration we feel) is that radical change is needed – and fast. It isn’t talked about much, but last year, the federal government paid over $200 billion in interest payments on the debt.

“By the end of 2014, that number will more than double to $550 billion (more than we’ve typically spent on Medicare). And by the end of the decade, interest payments on the debt will be approaching a trillion dollars annually. That’s going to compound, in no small way, the problems we’re already facing trying to find the resources necessary to meet our obligations and priorities. And so we have a paradox … We’re at one of those rare moments in our history where our system of government actually needs to work better than our Founders really intended it to. That’s not going to be easy. It isn’t supposed to be.”

In addition to Nugent, other new Members writing for the latest edition of the 47-year old centrist Republican policy journal are RepresentativesRenee Ellmers (NC-2), Mike Kelly (PA-3), and Martha Roby (AL-2). The latest FORUM also includes coverage of a May 9th policy breakfast The Ripon Society hosted on the subject with Representatives Kristi Noem(SD-AL) and Tim Scott (SC-1), who in his remarks to the assembled crowd, was blunt about what he believed needed to be accomplished, and he and his freshman colleagues had been elected to do. “The freshman class was sent to Washington to be a firewall so that more bad things would not happen,” Scott stated.

Other authors and issues appearing in the latest edition of the FORUM include:

• Veteran newsman and Ronald Reagan biographer Lou Cannon – writing about “Lessons of Conventions Past” and what presumptive Republican Nominee Mitt Romney can learn from the GOP conventions of 1976 and 1980.

• Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn – delivering a stern warning about America’s fiscal future and the debt bomb that must be defused.

• Former U.S. Congressman and Ambassador to Tanzania Mark Green – writing about the President’s Malaria Initiative and why it remains one of the great successes of the George W. Bush Administration.

• Heritage Foundation Fellow Diane Katz – writing about the current deluge of federal regulations and how the cost of complying with government mandates is diverting billions from business investment.

• Former U.S. Congresswoman and current Commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission Anne Northup – writing about her first-hand look at the government rule-making bureaucracy and science-based decision-making often takes a backseat to ideology and partisan politics.

• Former U.S. Congressman and current American Chemistry Council CEO Cal Dooley – writing about the need for America to develop a comprehensive energy policy that maximizes American sources of fuel.
• American Enterprise Institute President Arthur Brooks – discussing, in a Q&A interview, the new book he has written called The Road to Freedom and the message it holds for our country today.

In addition, the latest edition of THE RIPON FORUM also features a profile of Nevada Senator Dean Heller, who discusses his famous father, his first year in the Senate, and the economic pressures that people are feeling in his home state. 

THE RIPON FORUM is published by The Ripon Society, a public policy organization that was founded in 1962 and takes its name from the town where the Republican Party was born in 1854 – Ripon, Wisconsin. One of the main goals of The Ripon Society is to promote the ideas and principles that have made America great and contributed to the GOP’s success. These ideas include keeping our nation secure, keeping taxes low and having a federal government that is smaller, smarter and more accountable to the people.