The left has taken to attacking the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, perhaps because it’s easier than defending the Biden administration’s policies. But I worked at The Heritage Foundation from 2005 to 2012, and I can tell you the whole thing is a bit overblown.
I was a big fan of the book full of policy proposals, then known as “Mandate for Leadership,” and now commonly referred to as Project 2025. Every four years, Heritage would update it with new proposals and retool old ones for current circumstances. It was not all that well known outside of Capitol Hill and the White House, nor even in those hallways. Generally few of the ideas in it received any follow-up.
Now the book is being painted as the agenda for all Republicans. But it was never considered that in the past.
Then again, I have my own ideas that will make Washington more responsive to the American electorate. So here is my personal Project 2025.
All these ideas will restore confidence in government and reduce the rampant alienation that most people feel when they read about the goings on in faraway Washington, D.C. And I bet they will be more popular than that other Project 2025.
First, politicians should shrink the government in order to grow the private sector. One way to make the federal government smaller is to tax all Americans at a single rate.
The Tax Policy Center argues that “reducing the number of distinctions among economic activities and taxpayers’ characteristics would simplify the code, reducing both taxpayers’ compliance costs and governmental administrative costs.”
Removing all the tax credits and exemptions and allowing Americans to file taxes on a postcard would be wildly popular.
We all remember Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wisc.) idea to simplify your tax form to 14 lines. One flaw of the Ryan plan was it included deductions for contributions to savings plans, mortgage interest and charitable contributions, in addition to tax credits for children, earned income and higher education.
A better idea would be a form with just three lines: one for “wage and compensation income,” another for “taxes withheld” and finally “taxes owed/refund due.” The government should only collect the bare minimum to operate a slimmed-down version of itself, and it could do so with a tiny postcard submission.
Shrinking government spending should go hand in hand with the new tax reform law. Our government is on track to spend about $2 trillion more than it takes in, as far into the future as the eye can see. That level of spending will exacerbate inflation, since deficit spending is the core cause of inflation.
It is time for several different mechanisms to cut spending, including a tough Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution that prevents tax hikes. Returning responsibility to the states (for example, by abolishing the Department of Education) and reforming entitlements would be good first steps toward making the federal government smaller.
My Project 2025 item number two is to restore faith in government by having presidents hold more frequent press conferences.
The public is tired of the White House press secretary rattling off tired old talking points and falling back on “I have not spoken to the president about that issue” as a way to avoid answering direct questions. Weekly press conferences from the president would help restore some faith in the executive branch.
Congress also needs to reform the legislative process to make it more understandable for Americans. The abolition of giant omnibus spending proposals would help. Another idea would be to change the rules of Congress to keep a piece of single-subject legislation on the floor for consideration of the House and Senate for a whole week to allow the American people to petition their government for redress of anything they don’t like about it.
Americans feel alienated from politicians in Washington because they don’t feel part of the process.
My last chapter of Project 2025 is to get the Republican and Democratic parties to reform the presidential nomination process. People don’t feel connected to the candidates, nor do they feel like they have a say unless they live in Iowa, New Hampshire or South Carolina. Most of the races in my lifetime were effectively finished by the time of South Carolina’s primary.
Maybe the parties could agree to regional primaries held in different months that rotate every four years. The current process, however, is a joke, and it was made even more comical this year when the Democrats just dumped their candidate for president in favor of someone who received no more votes than I did. (I didn’t run).
The big-picture issues of fracking, the wars in Ukraine and Israel, capital gains, preferred pronouns and climate change take up much of the debate, yet most voters are worried about inflation and by extension the health of the U.S. economy. That economic health is affected by a massive and confusing tax code, trillions in government overspending and an un-listening, uncaring federal government.
Furthermore, presidential nominating reform will make more Americans feel like they have a say in the process when nominating a candidate to be the most powerful politician in America.
That is my Project 2025. I bet it would be quite popular.
This op-ed is part of The Hill’s “How to Fix America” series exploring solutions to some of the country’s most pressing problems.
Brian Darling is former counsel for Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and former senior fellow for Government Studies at The Heritage Foundation.