Conservative Action Team

August 7, 1998 I know a lot of Christians are frustrated with Congress. In 1994 and 1996 they elected a number of pro-life, pro-family legislators, yet it seems like very little was accomplished. True, some elements of the Contract With America did pass, but not much else seems to be happening.

My argument is that we elected good people to Congress but there are still not enough of them to overcome "the powers that be." Many long-term incumbents don't want to rock the boat, and the Republican leadership points to the slim margin they currently enjoy in the Congress and feel helpless to tackle some of the tough issues in society.

It is therefore encouraging that many of the younger conservative Congressmen like Steve Largent, David MacIntosh, Tom Coburn and others have formed a caucus called the Conservative Action Team (CAT).

Consider their current list of goals. Spending 95% of education dollars in the classroom. Eliminating Goals 2000. Prohibiting national testing of students. Promoting traditional marriages. Eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts. Preventing human cloning experiments. Overriding President Clinton's veto of the partial-birth abortion ban.

They have even worked out a budget that would achieve these objectives. Their budget calls for across-the-board tax relief for all Americans, eliminates the marriage penalty, and limits governmental growth to the rate of inflation. To put their budget in perspective, the CAT budget offers five times more tax reduction than the Republican Senate budget.

The Conservative Action Team is headed in the right direction. All they need now are more freshman congressman to join their team. Perhaps the November elections will give them the votes they need.

I'm Kerby Anderson of Probe Ministries, and that's my opinion.