Posted on 02/22/2004 8:05:00 PM PST by FairOpinion
WASHINGTON, Feb 20 (Reuters) - The White House has been reaching out to conservative groups to quell a rebellion over government spending and budget deficits, hoping to shore up President George W. Bush's political base in an election year.
Conservative leaders who have taken part in private White House meetings in recent weeks said on Friday officials have promised to all but freeze non-defense spending, and assured them Bush will follow through on his threat to veto major highway legislation if Congress refuses to scale it back.
The price tag on a six-year highway and transportation bill stalled in the House of Representatives is $375 billion while a Senate highway bill calls for spending $318 billion. The White House has proposed a $256 billion measure.
"Bush has been very attentive to the critique from the right," said Stephen Moore, president of the Club for Growth, a politically powerful conservative group -- offering tentative praise where once he talked openly of a brewing rebellion.
But if the White House does not follow through, said Heritage Foundation vice president for government relations, Michael Franc, "all bets are off."
"This is not something you can address with a handshake, a pat on the back and an invitation to the White House. You address it by actions," he added.
The White House is used to being attacked by Democrats, but it came as something of a shock when fellow Republicans broke ranks over growth in government spending, hurting Bush at a time when his job approval numbers were already falling.
Conservatives from the Cato Institute criticized the president for overseeing a nearly 25 percent surge in spending over the last three years -- the fastest pace since the Johnson administration of the mid-1960s.
Others singled out his failure to lay out concrete plans to reduce the federal budget deficit, projected at a record $521 billion this year. Even some of Bush's Republican allies in the House warned of a backlash against his budget priorities.
In what one administration official called a "concerted effort," senior White House officials have been meeting with Republicans in Congress to smooth over their differences.
Joel Kaplan, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, has been meeting with conservative groups, an aide said. The effort may be paying off.
"Stung by a lot of the criticism from the right, Bush is going to be steadfast about sticking to his spending targets," said Moore, who warned in January that a rebellion among conservatives was brewing.
Now Moore says, "They clearly are trying to reach out. I think the complaints of conservatives have been heeded."
Heritage analyst Brian Riedl once described the mood of conservatives as "angry."
Now Riedl says, "I think the White House is definitely moving in the right direction," though he added, "There's a lot of work ahead of them."
William Niskanen, the chairman of the libertarian Cato Institute who advised former President Ronald Reagan, said he has personally not seen much of an outreach effort. "We'll have to see" what the White House does, he said.
.....and defeating Bush will make that all go away? Will it? I can't hear you.
I have to slightly correct you here. Engler first won in 1990
BUT, Proposal A happened in 94(I think).
No way! He will form another priority list that will differ greatly from the first.
He will ask and is asking now for the conservative input to make that list.
I got mine last week.
It will be a differnt situation and I expect vetos as he no longer will need some of the support that he has had to garner. The political dynamics will change greatly.
I guess we will differ on this for sure.
Yes, we will. Good night.
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I've thought the same myself...
That's the future GOP base....after the conservatives throw one tandrum too many. However, the Dems will fight Bush on the amnesty issue...they want that one for themselves, along with the millions of future votes that go along with amnesty. Score: Dems/Illegals - 1, GOP/Conservatives - 0.
In point of fact, it appeared to me that he gave up the fight.
I do not know why. Depression perhaps, but he would have been different and more confrontational with the rats IMO, if he had won a second.
Just my opinion, it is all moot because republicans stayed home in large number for two election cycles. Dole was a loser as well.
For one thing, if Bush has to ask what conservatives want or what conservatism is, then that's a prima facie case for not voting for him.
Or he can drift further left with no concern of needing to be re-elected. Where is the guarantee this splended scenario won't happen? It's been a bumpy road in an election cycle when Conservatives are needed, what happens when we revert to being "insignificant malcontents" in the words of some Pubbie before Americans?
They do seem a bit surprised by the outcry from conservatives. I guess they figured we'd just grab our ankles, and thank them for the opportunity to be screwed by our side.
Gee, thanks for the kind words.
I haven't yet come to a firm determination of whether that was the intended result.
Both of those men worked hard to push Agenda 21 forward, but this President has without any doubt, done more to get the program up and working full steam than both predecessors.
We have traded technology beyond the belief of all Americans with China, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and all the Eastern European countries.
We have accepted more uneducated aliens into America than in any other 12 years with the current program headed towards another 10 million per year.
We have allowed more liberty restraint laws on American citizens to be passed by Congress than any other time, including both World Wars.
You continue to believe that this is all for the security of America. I believe this is a truly false security with the intentions of reducing the liberty of our citizens. Eventually (within a decade) we will all have National ID Cards, our every move will be recorded electronically, our phone calls and electronic communications are all scanned right now.
You consider this to be security, I see it as an invasion of privacy. Because I am in wheel chair, I get searched everytime that I take a commercial flight. You have no idea whatsoever how much that gets under my skin, having a person, who speaks with an accent, helping me remain standing while some other alien searches the fabric of my wheelchair with a wand. I hate having to tolerate just the feel of their hands on my body.
If you want to know more about me just click on my name and you'll go to my 'about' page.
"All truth goes through three stages.
First it is ridiculed.
Then it is violently opposed.
Finally, it is accepted as self-evident."
(Schopenhauer)
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