The Promise of President Trump: Tom Coburn

‘Fixing what is broken in Washington is not hard if your own political future is not your primary concern.’

My hope for the Trump administration is that it will restore a constitutionally limited—yet effective—government. America is in decline not because of our citizens, but because of Washington. If we hope to make America great again, we must return to the core principles that made us great in the first place: individual liberty, economic freedom, religious liberty and personal responsibility.

My hope is that the administration will take a real look at how we spend our tax dollars—the $400 billion a year in waste, fraud and redundancies—and take the case to the people.

Fixing what is broken in Washington is not hard if your own political future is not your primary concern. If Mr. Trump is committed to the big changes America needs, we will never see him worry about the next election. Rather, his administration will worry about the future generations who have been sacrificed at the altar of political expediency. Mr. Trump has already demonstrated his willingness to push back against the career politicians through his message on House ethics reform. He will need to do that decisively and often as the House considers re-enacting earmarks, the gateway drug to bigger spending.

Our Founders never envisioned the size and scope of the government we have today, nor its invasion of citizens’ personal liberty. They would never have stood for a government that creates dependency in its citizens. We must renew our commitment to the Founders’ vision. Our hope must never be in some government program, but in a renaissance of personal involvement, personal responsibility and personal sacrifice.

A final hope is that Mr. Trump will enthusiastically endorse a convention of the states, called under Article V of the Constitution, to offer amendments that limit the reach and scope of the federal government, force a balanced budget with generally accepted accounting principles, and enact term limits.

I expect significant conflict with the status quo of Congress and the federal bureaucracy. Bad habits are very hard to break. But it will be well worth the effort. Leading by example, the Trump administration can restore the primacy of the key tenets for American success.

This piece originally appeared at The Wall Street Journal

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Dr. Tom Coburn is the Nick Ohnell Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a former two-term U.S. Senator from Oklahoma.

This piece originally appeared in The Wall Street Journal