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.
Yes, exactly... and that has implications during an election year. We aren't just sitting around someone's living room chatting about right-wing policy disagreements. This site comes up on google searches and politically uninvolved Americans will be stumbling onto the threads looking for information. When they see an entire thread of right-wingers ripping Bush to shreds, that can damage our common goals.
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We are in the midst of an election and only one of two coalitions will win. We are part of the right-wing coalition, or at least most of us are. The candidate leading this coalition has already been selected and it is George W. Bush... you either fight for our candidate, join the opposite side or just get the hell out of the way.
I would be very open about criticizing President Bush if this were last year or next year... but not now while we are fighting for an election.
They have become a House of Lords, with no House of Commons in sight. We are nearing the end of the Republic.
So you go from "gotcha game" to the claim I am posing a "false dilemna" - no, Sabertooth, it is not. Why is it that when certain questions are asked you dodge them with bullcrap claims of a "gotcha game" or "false dilemna"?
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I'll just let your last post stand on its own... I'm confident that the lurkers see it exactly for what it is.
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Interesting to watch the tactics and strategy play out in congress.
The rats have been planning to bring wedge issues to the front burner for some three years now. the Pubs have countered and flanked them as the battle goes on.
I think we may see the unused veto pen used soon. I can predict at least that much.
I note that the gun issue is now ripening. That may be the first or second, depending on if they finish the highway bill.
This may be the red meat that is needed.
I hope so.
Otherwise, it will be a very long,emotionally draining election.
Nobody (that is sane) wants to see Kerry elected and Republicans criticizing Bush in order to keep him conservative will not elect Kerry.
Allowing Bush to drift to the left, guided by Rove et. al. will cause the base to fragment and allow somebody like Kerry to be elected.
It is OUR responsibility to reform the party from within. If we don't then we lose members and money to fringe parties that will NEVER be of consequence. And the Republican Party will turn back into the Country Club Set that it once was.
Bush, and his handlers, only understand one thing:
Brute political force, mainly in the form of supporters and/or money.
BTW, if YOU notice... it was you and others that waltzed around the thread confronting others directly looking to pick fights. Aren't there enough Bush-bashing threads for your and your fellow travelers to play in?
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That is just not true.
Bush is not being handled and has a sincere desire to make a better and safer America, all politics aside.
He cannot be viewed as a power broker as you stated.
I see nothing that indicates that he is, except from the "oil heads" who espouse the leftist mantra of Republican conspiracy thinking.
I just don't know how and why you could come to those conclusions.
That would assume that a crime was commited..................
Lively conversation is what I see.
And perhaps too much fun?????:-)
By the way, why would any president say that he'll sign any bill put on his desk, no matter how bad it is, if that is what Congress gives him. I don't think President Bush is a dishonorable man, who would agree to sign any law, no matter how bad it was, that Congress put on his desk.
Later folks, don't solve all the issues while I am logged out.
You've got a lot of nerve questioning the self-annointed arbiter of what is and is not acceptable at FR.
Since you're so sure he did, in fact, promise to veto CFR, I'm sure you can provide the exact quote, right?
And he did warn the Senate NOT to count on him to do their work; he said that they needed to fix it BEFORE they sent it to him.
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