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.
Based on your posts, your lobotomy apparently went well.Too bad you could not get an integrity transplant;it's needed desperately.
Cordially,
BigSky,did this garden ornament have its feelings hurt and hit you,too?
Cordially,
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I listened carefully, so please return the favor: YOU listen carefully.
For the sake of your cause, you should retire and let the people who read White House faxes take over. You really hurt your cause. I voted for Bush once and could be convinced to vote for him again. But it's really sickening to pick a candidate based upon the other guy being worse. And, with the exceptions of 1976 Texas Republican Primary, 1980, 1984 and 2000 (misguided here) general elections, that has been the reason for my 100% Republican voting record since 1968. Your "LP" sneer is pretty lame for that reason alone.
So, tell us why we should vote for Bush. You might win some converts--especially among those without principles or intellect. You might even win some of those of with principles or intellect if you demonstrate some yourself. Or ping someone for help.
Cordially,
Enjoy running back to LP to compare your notes with the rest of them
Cordially,
Far better than you and the rest of the Jim Wright wannabees, yes.
Enjoy your Cassandra chorus back on LP,there DooDoo.
Cordially,
Are you always a drooling imbecile or does that only happen when you post over at LP? I vote the former.
The ones you paraphrase.
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HEY... that's awfully easy to do in my neighborhood just by parking in your driveway LOL
We average about 3 bears per square mile here... my parents bought a house a few streets away from us, the previous owner of that home did NOT like having a black bear in her kitchen one day ;-)
You know, sometimes you do post things that are interesting and I can actually enjoy agreeing with.This new thing about how you and the rest of We-hate-Bush clowder about helping the President is very much like the We support the troops but not the War crowd. It does not stand scrutiny. It stand less scrutiny after reading some of the heavy thoughts I've seen posted over at LP. Good God, why don't you all call it Der Sturmer online and be done with it? Same rational thinking and same basic Uber Alles groupthink.
I have nothing to prove to you, frankly.You love to accuse others of being lockstep and groupthink, yet each one of your Kameraden file almost the same posts. I think there's a hell of a lot of transference going on there and it is a warning sign of bipolar syndrome.
Now, you and the rest of the clowder feel free to hack up a few hairballs, moan how offended and hurt you all are and sit on the fringe and convince yourselves that your claim of "helping" the President really flies. You sure can dish it out, but apparently not one of you can take it. Don't you have some illegal aliens to hunt down?
Cordially,
No - I've seen moderates able to defend their position quite well. It's generally the nitwits that travel in packs.
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