lock12
Since Feb 20, 2004
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.
lock12
Since Feb 20, 2004
All words are wasted on the un-appeasables you see here on the forum.
The principled nature of their stance makes any change a defeat. They have painted themselves into a corner and they wanted to do so.
People should call their congresscritters and tell them NO on the gas tax increase inside the Transportation Bill.
Wow! You convinced us.
You'd think that somebody who just joined Free Republic 2 days ago would be more careful about blowing their cover with a post like this.
Bush will win in November.
It's probably just part of their plan. I'm sure they've been expecting the rebellious base since 2002.
Not just them, but ALL Democrats should be grateful that Bush has been spending like a Democrat!
You give the DU-fus too much credit.
Blame the voters who voted for those RINOs.
rinohunter.blogspot.com
ANYBODY know where I can a rear window for a 1965 Falcon???
Now having said that, their are a couple that are dead weight and vote rat most of the time.
The problem is that they reside in the Senate.
If we had more numbers their, we could get rid of them. I hope that situation improves.
Completely. The guy is so much into triangulating, he's going to triangulate his boss out of a job.
I've got more than one conservative friend speculating on how a Democrap President checked by a Republican Congress would keep a lid on spending.....Bush/Rove just seem unserious about making the necessary budgetary choices,IMO.
Your nagging platitudes are inoperative as there isn't going to be a "middle block" this time! Demos are convinced they was robbed in 2000 and fiscal conservative are beginning to see we're being robbed ever since!!!
The President is a victim of his own success in the WOT and a tin ear toward those who think the "new tone" thing is a figament of his imagination, which it is!!!
People rarely forgive the insult of being taken for granted, then the insult of being accused of disloyalty for simply throwing up their hands at not being listened to.
Reaching does not mean lifting your hand at the wrist. Extend your arm Mr. President and firmly uphold the 2nd at no $ cost when the sun sets. That would speak volumes IMO.
And if I may be so bold as to suggestputting the onous of approval for Homo marriages on the Homos. Let them pass a Constitutional Amendment redefining the word marriage. It presently means only one thing. Make them convince the country that homosexuality is not an abomination. We don't need to prove that marriage is heterosexual. It is what it is.
LOL
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