By Ronald Kessler
Ryan Hecker got the idea while he was shaving: Why not hold politicians accountable to conservative principles with a “Contract from America”?
Bookish and intense, Hecker, 29, is hardly the sort of person you would expect to galvanize a political movement. But as a Harvard Law School graduate and a lawyer with Vinson and Elkins in Houston, Hecker has impressive credentials.
He has another thing going for him: Outrage.
Outrage was what he was feeling about the Bush administration’s plan to bail out banks when he thought up the Contract from America in December 2008. In contrast to Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America, the new contract would bubble up from the grass roots, setting forth principles that politicians would be asked to embrace.
Now, tens of thousands of activists have voted on what they consider the top 10 principles.
At a press conference at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) last week, Hecker and other Tea Party Patriots, FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey, Sen. Jim DeMint, Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform, the National Taxpayers Union, Liberty Central, and Regular Folks United announced plans to unveil the final document on April 15.
Despite the growing power of his concept, until now, no one in the media has interviewed Hecker about his background and how he arrived at the idea for the contract.
Hecker tells Newsmax he grew up in a liberal family in Manalapan, N.J. His father taught math at a middle school and at the College of Staten Island, where his mother also taught math. Hecker’s uncle, Democrat Marty Markowitz, is Brooklyn’s borough president.
When Hecker was 16, Hecker’s congressman, Republican Michael J. Pappas, got him a page job, which exposed him to the arguments of Republicans on the Hill.
“A lot of the pages were running around delivering packages all day, but my job was to sit in the cloakroom and wait for phone calls and go on the floor,” Hecker says. “So I witnessed a lot of debates.”
While attending New York University, Hecker joined a debate team and was impressed by the arguments of conservatives who leaned toward being libertarian.
“The strongest arguments, especially on economic and individual rights issues, were for me always the conservative position,” Hecker recalls.
Hecker was not shy about letting his parents know that he had become a Republican.
“My mom still thinks like, Oh, you’re doing what you’re doing, and it’s not what I agree with, but I’m proud of you,” Hecker says.
Hecker had no problem breaking the news to his future wife, Niru. Born in the U.S. of parents from India, she is a conservative who met Hecker when she was attending Bryn Mawr and debated him.
In 2005, Hecker graduated cum laude from Harvard and was hired by Sullivan and Cromwell in New York. After two years, he left the law firm to join the presidential campaign of Rudy Giuliani as an opposition researcher.
When the campaign was over, Hecker joined the law firm of Vinson and Elkins in Houston, where his wife had begun a residency in neurosurgery.
Last Feb. 27, Hecker was on his way to lunch and ran into a rally of conservatives. He joined them and helped organize a rally on April 15 by the Houston Tea Party Society, where he became an executive board member. Hecker later became a board member of the Tea Party Patriots, one of the leading tea party groups in the country.
In September 2009, Hecker launched the ContractfromAmerica.com Web site. The idea is to enlist candidates from both parties to subscribe to such goals as “Stop the Tax Hikes,” “Stop the Pork,” and “End Runaway Government Spending.”
“The Contract from America is based on the principles of individual liberty, free markets, and constitutionally limited government,” Hecker says. “The goal is to really create a grass-roots feeling that we can make a difference, that individuals can make a difference, and that it’s time for the Republicans and the Democrats and politicians in general to listen to the people.
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The Obama administration and this Democratically controlled Congress is the most irresponsible in U.S. history. Instead of breaking this calamitous cycle of excessive spending all Pelosi/Reid/Obama can do, is blame the previous administration, pass billions in bailouts, socialize our banks and the financial institutions and take over our car companies–now they want to socialize the Healthcare industry and increase the cost of energy. I am apalled at this Congress and the Administration, who’s job is to represent the will of the people , in the face of our great nation actually facing bankrupcy, unfazed is still trying to emty the public coffers on an even larger scale. “Hope and change” is nothing more than fiscal suicide and includes a growing government whos ultimate goal is to restrict our liberties and tax us for these socialistic programs to redistribute this country’s wealth. Present entitlements of Social Security and Medicare–exceeds $53 trillion, a number so monumental it makes the scope of this future obligation unfathomable. Once the 80 million baby boomers begin to dip into these entitlements—talk about a potential tsunami, this could be the start of a real fiscal meltdown. Our children and their children will have less a quality of life than we have enjoyed and a tax burden they will never be able to afford or be able to repay. Economics dictate this spending and borrowing is unsustainable and if the Obama administration and Congress feel in the face of growing opposition this is politically wise to force future generations to pay for expedient ideologue debt, then this is morally reprehensible and fundamentally wrong and at odds with the founding priciples of this great nation. Everyone realizes this administration is running deficits and compiling a mountain of debt at uncharted rates that is clearly unsustainable. Our nation is borrowing more than .30 cents of every dollar the government is spending and this is escalating with no restraint in sight. In light of these perilous economic times this added debt may well bankrupt our struggling economy. We are becoming a nation of debters and over $2.8 trillion is held by many foreign governments. These debt holders are becoming increasingly concerned with the dollar-denominated assets they hold especially as the dollar falls in value. Bottom line on foreign investment, it eventually will create higher interest rates domestically due to the uneasiness and fear abroad, simply because they conclude our reckless domestic spending policies will surely eventually devalue our U.S. currency, so they will demand more value for the risk. It is a core ethical and moral obligation that the government not debase our currency, in which most of the hard earned wealth and savings the American people is invested, including me and my wife. These reckless policies are risking the future collapse of the dollar. To me and my wife who have sacrificed to save and build for a better tomorrow for ouself and our family, this out of controll spending is an utter disregard for our values in favor of the live for today, easy credit and spend crowd. The fear of a loss of their retirement nest egg is not something that sits well with many Americans. Almost everyone can agree that compilling of this unsustainable debt will eventually cause the Fed to print a mountain of money, therefore almost surely restarting inflation.
It is foolhardy when the government is spending over 30% of the GDP, to beluieve our present tax system can throw off enough revenue to reduce the deficit. That leaves three unlikely choices— slash Federal spending which appears to be unlikely with this crowd, or raise taxes to unprecedented levels and be prepared to live with Carter era inflation. Obama and his neo-socialist spending policies are beginning to make George W., look like Ron Paul. These are serious doomsday politics, apparently both political parties cannot say no to the voters and must compete for each vote by the promise of more reckless spending and a false promise of lower taxes.This is surely the precursor of ending our way of life as we know it and the end of a functioning Republic and surely the beginning of central planning and big government. We plan to vigorously oppose this tryrannical administration and support strongly those that are ready to take back our government and preserve our liberties and strengthen our fiscal house.
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