<P> As a blueprint for the policy of the new Congressional majority, Micklethwait and Wooldridge argue in The Right Nation that the Contract placed the Congress firmly back in the driver's seat of domestic government policy for most of the 104th Congress, and placed the Clinton White House firmly on the defensive . </P> <P> George Mason University law professor David E. Bernstein has argued that the Contract "show (ed)... that (Congress took) federalism and limited national government seriously," and "undoubtedly made (the Supreme Court decision in) United States v. Lopez more viable ." </P> <P> Journalist and senior congressional reporter Major Garrett equated the Contract with a game of miniature golf, "fun, popular, and largely diversionary exercise meant to satisfy middle - class sensibilities", contrasted with the golf of governing America and leadership . Republicans interviewed by Garrett when the Contract was being compiled said it was meant to be a political document of easy goals, not a governing document, with one senior aide explaining, "We don't care if the Senate passes any of the items in the contract . It would be preferable, but it's not necessary . If the freshmen do everything the contract says, they'll be in excellent shape for 1996". </P> <P> In 2014, business and finance writer John Steele Gordon, writing in The American, an online magazine published by the American Enterprise Institute, said that "(t) he main reason (for the Republican victory in 1994) was surely the Contract with America ..." in part because it "nationalized the election, making it one of reform versus business as usual . The people voted for reform ." Gordon wrote that the Contract "turned out to be a brilliant political ploy . The contract tuned in to the American electorate's deep yearning for reform in Washington, a yearning that had expressed itself in the elections of both (U.S. Presidents) Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan ." He described the election of 1994 as an "epic slaughter of the majority party in Congress" that "changed American politics for the foreseeable future," and that "(a) fter 60 years of Democratic dominance in American politics, the two parties were on a par ." He concludes that "(t) he main reason was surely the Contract with America ..." </P>

Which of the following was part of the contract with america