Posted on 01/19/2013 9:14:11 AM PST by Alter Kaker
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – House Republicans appeared to be coming to grips with a stark realization as they returned to Washington from a three-day retreat here — they have a majority in name only.
The party begins the 113th Congress with reduced numbers and confronting a popular president and an increased Democratic majority in the Senate.
Preparing for a cascade of fiscal battles and a presidential push on guns and immigration, the House GOP is adopting a minority posture, hoping to achieve modest goals incrementally while serving as a check on Obama’s ambitious second-term agenda.
Republicans “have to recognize the realities of the divided government that we have,” said Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the party’s budget chief and 2012 vice presidential nominee.
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and his aides have taken to referring to the “Democrat majority in Washington” in statements in recent weeks.
The stance is a significant shift from the party’s mantra in the immediate aftermath of the November election, when Boehner and other leaders claimed one half of a dual mandate from voters who had reelected both Obama and the House Republican majority.
It also represents a resetting of expectations for Republican lawmakers and voters alike.
Coming off what many viewed as a defeat in the fiscal cliff deal, and with Obama adopting a hardline position on fiscal matters, Republicans have diminished hopes of what they can force Democrats to accept.
Managing expectations in the years ahead was a major focus of the retreat, reiterated during listening sessions with leadership, members and aides said.
Instead of passing dozens of GOP-favored measures anathema to Democrats, House Republicans lawmakers intend to make a greater effort of sending bills to the Senate that Democrats would have a difficult time opposing.
“There was an element of saying, 'Let's be realistic about what we can accomplish, if we pass something that there's no way in hell they'll even talk about, what value is that?,” Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) said of the conversation that took place most of the day Thursday between lawmakers and leadership.
“The value is — what we come up with is something that can actually be accomplished and so that's part of the goal — (given the president and the Democratic Senate),” Bishop added.
Bishop explained that given the Democratic-controlled Senate and Democratic White House, leaders made a point of emphasizing that “sometimes we get ourselves in trouble where we have an expectation level that is just unrealistic.”
That strategy was on display with Friday’s announcement of a path forward on the debt ceiling.
Instead of attaching deep spending cuts or contentious entitlement reforms to an increase in the nation’s borrowing limit, Republicans chose to use member pay as the string to attach. The issue is seen as a political winner, and both Democrats and Republicans have proposed withholding the salaries of lawmakers if the House and Senate fail to pass a budget.
A senior House GOP leadership source expanded on the Speaker’s intention of managing expectations during the three-day retreat.
“It's important that we set expectations to a reasonable level so that we're not over-promising, that we are actually under-promising and over-delivering,” the source said.
Since retaking control of the House in 2010, a number of conservative lawmakers have been frustrated with their leadership’s inability to deliver on repealing healthcare or enacting all of the Bush-era tax rates.
Many GOP lawmakers believed that they would win control of the Senate and White House in 2012 but that scenario didn’t happen. So, instead of reading the internal party gripes in the media, Boehner and his inner circle wanted to present the facts of the current situation.
And the leadership enlisted Ryan’s help to emphasize the political reality in D.C.
“As Ryan very clearly articulated, we're the minority in Washington, [so] how do you impact real change when you only have the House and you don't have the Senate or presidency? It's pretty hard,” the source conceded.
With Ryan’s conservative cache, leaders laid out a somber situation to manage expectations. That entailed telling rank-and-file Republicans no to “promise something you can't deliver on,” the source said.
“Boehner's never promised something he can't deliver on — but that doesn't mean some members expectations are way out of whack. We probably have a handful of members who think it's doable to enact all the policies in the Ryan Budget over the next two years, and that's La La land."
Following the extensive Thursday morning and afternoon sessions with leadership, one GOP lawmaker said that the House lawmakers were prepared to move smaller bills that may force action in the Senate.
“We're looking at doing smaller, more incremental legislation that is directly tied to must-pass issues such as the sequestration ... If you think about it — sequestration for the president is the same as the Bush tax cut expiration for us ... it's going to happen. It's in law and I don't think he's going to like those cuts,” Rep. John Fleming (R-La.) told The Hill.
More like a supine posture.
If a gun and or magazine ban passes, the House GOP will be FINISHED! Such legislation shouldn’t even be allowed to reach the floor for a vote!
“Popular [p]RESIDENT”? Last I saw, Gallup had the Assclown at 49%.
when (and if) conservatives unite against the elites of both parties, the restoration of God’s rule and our nations recovery will start.
as long as conservatives continue to act as party dupes, falling for the joint tactics of division (and false appeasement) being promulgated by the elites of both parties, leftism will continue it’s advance.
Maybe the "lawmakers", but not for the Republican voters. With Bawlin' Boehner as Speaker, Republican voters already know that America will be screwed time and again as Boehner weeps and caves. Based on rumors that I just made up, Boehner is ordering white flags by the pallet!
Just because they act like they have a majority in name only doesn’t mean they do. Oh, surely they are in the minority of the house-senate-president troika. But then they don’t have a majority in name, either.
Lots of interesting posts on this thread and a lot of anger and frustration being expressed.
Here’s where we are today: We are now the America that Ayn Rand described in her book “Atlas Shrugged”. We have a corrupt, bloated government, union thugs, anti-business environment and phony environmentalism claims as the foundation for usurping our rights and freedoms. So far, the only thing missing is Galt’s Gulch.
The Congress is and will remain stalemated, unable to accomplish any of the people’s business. Obama will continue to ignore and circumvent the Congress to obtain his goals of destroying America.
The rule of law is dead and the Constitution has been shredded. We have a totalitarian, radical, communist Muslim occupying the WH pretending to be a natural-born citizen and patriotic American.
We are at the point at which restoring America to the land the Founders created by going to the ballot box is impossible. The system is rigged to keep incumbents in place and, increasingly, it is rigged to eliminate the second political party (Republicans). What the Republicans aren’t doing to eliminate themselves through weak leadership and outright cowardice, they are helping the Democrats eliminate them.
If there is going to be any substantive change to salvage what was once the greatest nation on earth, we must act soon before we are all relegated to “re-education camps”. There are only two options available to us - 1) outright revolt to retake America and reset the Constitution to what the Founders gave us or 2) the red states must secede and re-establish the original Constitution as the rule of law. There are no other options.
We cannot fix America via the ballot box because the left finally perfected their election fraud techniques in the last election to return the Kenyan, Muslim-in-Chief to the WH.
I don’t say these things easily or carelessly. I say them because they are the only options available for freedom-loving people to salvage the remnants of their country.
“Stop bashing Republicans! Stop hating our own! Unite!”
/s
And in return they will say they want you burned in an oven, NAZI style, and reiterate that position several times when called on it.
That’s just what I was told on FR the other day by a former Romney supporter after I refused to accept the blame for his loss.
“Minority posture”. I guess that is what they call it inside the beltway. In some areas it is called “stump broke”.
In AZ we call it cowering in a corner. Or sleeping with the enemy. Either is an accurate description.
“That’s just what I was told on FR the other day by a former Romney supporter after I refused to accept the blame for his loss.”
Mitt happens.
A lot of masks slipped between 2010 and 2012. It is time for some thinking outside the conventions and some new alliances. I am done with the Geriatric Old Plotters, who are merely the menshevik opposition to the bolsheviks.
And that’s exactly why the hit dogs howl so loudly.
This whole “Don’t you DARE question my CONSERVATISM!!!” BS has to end. I’ll question it often and loudly every time one of them backs a lib or lib position. We all have to. Or just admit they won.
More proof that if you are still voting GOP...you are voting Liberal
The GOP House will cave on taxes, the budget, and amnesty. They have the majority, and are willing to surrender to the Dems
Time to clean out the GOP in 14
Yes and get ready to fight. Because in doing so, you will be on the receiving end of the GOP’s Alynski machine. Even here on FR.
Plenty of people refuse to admit they were wrong and will fight any dissension from whatever the GOP comes up with tooth and nail.
The GOPe: A minority even when they’re in the majority.
I became convinced awhile ago that these people wouldn’t restore the country to its principled basis even if you gave them 100% of the seats.
When the standard bearer of the party is on record disavowing the policies of Reagan, his underlings back his philosophies as the ‘future of Republicanism’ and a chunk of the base becomes the online enforcement wing of “The New Black”...
Anyone remaining a part of that WANTS the hell they brought on.
They no longer hide what they are and people continue to defend what they have become. So who runs Bartertown?
From now on I’m calling RINOs Vichy Republicans, and to those hopeless Polyanna Republican supporters who want to put their blinders on and rally support for RINOs just because they have an “R” after their name - regardless of the fact that we KNOW they will compromise every conservative cause: can you imagine the look on a French Resistance fighter’s face if someone had suggested they join with the Vichy French to fight the Germans?
The Vichy Republicans are the same.
I find it funny the very same people screaming for ‘unity’ are the those who demanded we elect a liberal and ‘hold his feet to the fire’.
Well if conservatives do not hold the feet of (ahem...) fellow conservatives to the fire, by what right do they claim authority to hold their leaders?
And when we do, my, how loudly they scream...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.