GOP "Pledge to America"

CBS News has a draft of the Republican House agenda they call, "Pledge to America." Let's look at each point.

Jobs:

- Stop job-killing tax hikes

That would be nice.

- Allow small businesses to take a tax deduction equal to 20 percent of their income

Sounds good to me.

- Require congressional approval for any new federal regulation that would add to the deficit

Would this actually do anything?

- Repeal small business mandates in the new health care law.

Good idea.

Cutting Spending:

- Repeal and Replace health care

I'll be amazed if they can accomplish this. They'd be better off focusing on eliminating some of the more odious provisions on a point-by-point basis.

- Roll back non-discretionary spending to 2008 levels before TARP and stimulus (will save $100 billion in first year alone)

Sounds good to me.

- Establish strict budget caps to limit federal spending going forward

Limit it to what? This is pretty vague.

- Cancel all future TARP payments and reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

Good luck with reforming those organizations.

Reforming Congress:

- Will require that every bill have a citation of constitutional authority

It couldn't hurt.

- Give members at least 3 days to read bills before a vote

Seems reasonable.

Defense:

- Provide resources to troops

That's incredibly vague, and something we are already doing.

- Fund missile defense

That's good, but nothing new from the GOP.

- Enforce sanctions in Iran

Is anyone excited about that?

If you go through the actual draft document, it fleshes out the points a bit. But overall I find it fairly underwhelming.