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.
Oddly enough, folks like yourself go absolutely ballistic when someone suggests the president is pandering to moderates or the left. Yet, in your mind, he is capable of pandering to the right. It would appear you're more intent on preventing any coalition between President Bush and conservatives than you are moderates or liberals. As I mentioned earlier, one of three conclusions might be drawn:
1. You're so invested in online arguments that you'd sacrifice your beliefs to assure you "beat" your online opponents.
2. You don't believe conservative policy actually works, hence the reason you're worried about enacting it.
3. You're legitimately distressed by conservatism.
Thankfully, this administration is trying to involve conservatives as opposed to dividing them; they realize they're going to need all the conservative votes they can get. I only wish folks on FreeRepublic adopted the same tactic.
Says who .. you?
You have been following her around for some time now .. I just pointed out the obvious
You are doing the same thing you are accusing her of doing
Is this not enough for Bush to earn your respect? Who do you consider the enemy to be?
Lady, you're laboring under a misapprehension. I've already stated I intend to vote for President Bush barring something unforeseen.
As far as I know I'm the only one posting under my handle .. so yes, says me.
You have been following her around for some time now .. I just pointed out the obvious
Like I said, that's nonsense.
such as?
Oh gee .. does this mean I'm dismissed now?
On the thread we're posting to right now, Howlin replies to me first at #495.On this thread, I replied to her first.
You really should be more careful about tossing around accusations.
Well, it's a little hard to predict something unforeseen, wouldn't you agree? Suffice to say if he continues on his current course he'll receive my vote.
Or perhaps it's because your accusations are unfounded.
No need to apologize, though.
What would you consider veering off course?
Actually, what it seems to denote is the fact that he puts way more value on my opinion than anybody else's, and for some reason, he feels the need to parse each and every word I say. One would have to wonder why he spends so much time dissecting all my posts if he feels they add nothing to the conversation.
For someone who is so easily dismissed by him, he surely spends a lot of time castigating me for the errors of my ways, doesn't he?
I understand you're desperately trying to spin your way out of the false statement you made above, but I'm afraid you're going to need to do a bit better than that.
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