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.
It does indeed take a middle.
They used to call them Reagan democrats, but they are now independents, since Bubba prostituted the White House.
These folks need to be pleased as well.
The posters comments were well taken by me.
You discount the idea that maybe the Middle is the Conservatives?
Ya lie down with dogs (Kennedys), you come up with FLEAS!!! (and they're the real parasitic blood (tax) suckers)
I would like to see the BILLIONS we waste each year on supporting illegal migrants via tax dollars go towards upgrading our rural and interstate roads instead.
We all know it will never happen.
They cannot find comfort in the Democrat party but will vote against Bush and for Kerry as it stands now.
As it stands now, with the recent desertion of support from ------- conservatives over spending and largely immigration, we will lose the Whit House and some seats in Congress.
That is as it stands now.
Bush has a job ahead of him.
Not just them, but ALL Democrats should be grateful that Bush has been spending like a Democrat!
So you would prefer Gore had won in 2000? And that a Dem win in Nov?
Getting pretty sick of seeing this cop out too. Partial Birth ban was passed by previous Congress, so his claim to that is a little weakened in my eyes. He did the right thing tho so it weighs as extra credit. As for the rest, an argument could be made on the strength of the domestic negatives outweighing the domestic positives.
I am still intending to pull the GWB lever, but he has got my attention.
Then back Bush's proposal to change immigration law so that we can control the inflow.
But that's not gonna happen either.
So here we are!
Only if he doesn't make the group of dedicated voters that put him in the White House mad. By that I mean the gun owners. IF Bush pushes and signs an extension of the AWB, he's toast. I'll settle for one term of President Kerry before I'll allow myself to be backstabbed by my own party at the expense of my liberty and in the name of political expedience.
The Demns snicker about the certainty of the black for because "where else are they going to go?" In exactly the same vein do the Republicans snicker about gunowners. With an extremely close race, this is one group of voters from both parties who can swing an election. I'll settle for Kerry in order to spank the 'Pubbies. Now, mind you, that's only in case that Bush signs an AWB extension.
The biggest risk of this right now is the Rider that Diane Slimestein has tacked onto the Firearm Manufacturers Protection Bill. I will not dump my right to a semi-auto in order to protect the industry. It shouldn't be an "either or" situation here.
Maybe that's WHY his approval numbers are falling.
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