The Republican Party.

Full Speed Ahead

Congressional Republicans claim to be still working on their agenda, but its contours are already clear: Pass some "bipartisan accomplishments" and mark time until a presidential nominee emerges to shepherd the GOP out of the darkness. This is a strategy that ignores recent history. Instead of waiting for Bill Clinton, the Democrats of the early '90s blocked President Bush's program and sent him popular legislation of their own. Bush was forced to alienate conservatives by signing, or to lose broader public support by vetoing. To craft a platform, Clinton had merely to promise what Bush had vetoed.

Republicans have so far only a set of "themes" waiting to be fleshed out: taxes, Social Security, education, defense, drugs. This isn't a terrible start, but the specifics matter. The new focus on defense is welcome, for example, but it is not enough to hike military pay or even to demand missile defenses. Manpower, equipment, and force modernization all need attention. Above all, the GOP must defend a military culture besieged by feminists and others who would replace it with a civilian ethos.

Republicans will have no luck trying to persuade voters that Democrats are soft on drugs. They are even less likely to persuade them that they are more eager to spend money on education than Democrats. Yet this appears to be their hope. Sen. Pete Domenici, chairman of the Budget Committee, wants to increase federal education spending by a whopping 40 percent.

A better course would be to realize that education has become a national issue, but need not be a federal one. Congressional Republicans can wage worthwhile fights with Clinton on school choice for D.C., educational savings accounts, and so on. Beyond that, they should cede the field to their governors. One way to do this is to take funds for the biggest federal programs and give them to the states, no strings attached. Let the popular governors, always hungry for "free" cash, help build support for the idea.

On Social Security, Republicans should hold firm against Clinton's plan to have the government use the program's funds to buy large chunks of corporate America. And they should keep making the case for letting workers invest these funds themselves, even though they probably won't be able to enact that policy. While the public still trusts Democrats and distrusts Republicans with Social Security, the public prefers the substance of the Republican approach.

Politically, the most important item on the Republican agenda is tax relief. Tax cuts act simultaneously as a magnet for independent voters, a wedge between taxpaying Democratic voters and tax-loving Democratic politicians, a shield blunting attacks on Republicans for opposing tax- financed goodies, and Prozac for conservatives. Polls to the contrary cannot be trusted, owing to the public's cynicism about the likelihood of ever getting tax cuts. Whatever the specifics of the tax-cut proposal (see Ramesh Ponnuru's "Apolitical Animals," page 28), it needs to be big enough to get voters' attention.

Finally, Republicans can't confine their agenda to five points. They should keep daring Clinton to defend partial-birth abortion. They should provide huge savings for consumers by passing electricity deregulation and tort reform for car accidents. They should respond to patients' complaints of powerlessness with reforms that let them own their health policies. A few free-market environmental initiatives would better position Republicans to explain that Al Gore's environmentalism is an attack on middle-class values and interests. And an enterprising presidential candidate can take the lead in the campaigns to abolish preferences and rein in judicial imperialism.

We realize that we are proposing an ambitious, crowded agenda for a congressional majority that will be busy enough fending off bad ideas on campaign finance, the minimum wage, and so on. Good. It's time to go back on offense.