Who cares if they are viable? It mght teach em a lesson, but I doubt it.
Posted on 09/26/2005 5:42:50 AM PDT by beaureguard
Rep. Mike Pence, a 46-year-old former radio talk show host from eastern Indiana serving his third term in Congress, is currently chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee (RSC). He has tried hard to cooperate with the regular House Republican leadership rather than confront it. So, he could not have been happy last Tuesday when he found himself in a closed-door autodafe, with GOP leaders as the inquisitors and Pence as the heretic.
Pence and the RSC's heresy was to propose that massive federal outlays resulting from Hurricane Katrina be offset by reduced spending elsewhere. Specifically, they requested offsets to cut highway projects earmarked by individual House members, and a delay in implementing President Bush's new Medicare prescription drug subsidy. The negative reaction by the leadership was reflected when Pence, offered a seat at a later meeting, explained that he would be more comfortable standing because House Speaker Dennis Hastert had just tanned his hide.
Neither President Bush nor congressional leaders will tolerate tampering with the drug subsidy, the president's least popular initiative among conservatives. While the White House would be happy to see some highway pork eliminated, the House leaders absolutely refused. At stake here is a basic disagreement over the philosophy of government within the Republican Party as it nears the end of its 11th year controlling the House of Representatives.
Hastert believes it is not just the privilege but the duty of a House member to deliver federal projects to his constituents. Many younger conservatives could not disagree more, but most -- like Pence -- are loyal Republicans who are loath to criticize their leaders. An exception on the RSC to such reticence is 42-year-old Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona, who like Pence ran a conservative think tank before entering Congress.
Self-limited to three terms ending next year, Flake has acted as though there is no tomorrow from his first day in the House in January 2001. He, along with Pence, was one of only 25 Republicans to vote against the drug subsidy in 2003. Flake believes big government is addictive. "The leadership hooks the new members when they come into Congress," Flake told me, "and they stay hooked."
Pence was far more discreet in Tuesday's session with his party's leadership, but that did not save him a going over, led by two powerful committee chairmen: Rep. Don Young (Transportation Committee) and Rep. Bill Thomas (Ways and Means Committee). The harshest treatment of Pence, however, was administered by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who does not like his rank-and-file members depicting a free-spending Republican Party.
There was more of the same from the leadership at Wednesday's closed-door House Republican Conference. Pence was not asked to speak on behalf of the RSC, and he did not volunteer.
But later Wednesday, RSC members in a press conference unveiled Operation Offset, an attempt to cut earmarks and reduce the drug subsidy bill. Pence offered to delay his $26 million highway earmark for Muncie and Anderson in eastern Indiana. Rep. Jeb Hensarling, a 48-year-old second-termer from Texas, similarly would be willing to delay $16 million for roads in Mesquite. Flake is a rare congressman who asked for no earmarked highway funds for his district (though it did not keep him from re-election last year with 79 percent of the vote). Young is the grand champion earmarker, with more than $1 billion in the highway bill for projects in his state of Alaska.
Pence, Flake and Hensarling met privately with Office of Management and Budget Director Josh Bolten last Thursday and got a warmer reception than they did from their own leadership -- up to a point. The president will not permit a hair to be touched on the head of the expensive new entitlement for prescription drugs.
The beleaguered conservatives see all this spending leading inexorably to a tax increase, which would redistribute the tax burden to the disadvantage of the successful and threaten an economic recession. Barry Goldwater long ago assailed Dwight D. Eisenhower for presiding over a "Dime Store New Deal." That stinging rebuke no longer would be appropriate for today's Republicans. They outdo Democrats on pork and are in the same ballpark on entitlements. Even Katrina and now Rita do not restrain them.
Time to dump the Republicans. Get them back to parity with the Democrats - then they may be a little more attentive to their base. (And gridlock ain't bad either.)
Well, If the shoes fit, MR. DeLay................
I am a long-time faithful but I am getting tired of W throwing money at everything.
And Newt Gingrich once called Bob Dole the tax collector for the welfare state.
This is nothing new, but it does illustrate that the fight never ends.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R) said that "Republicans have done so well in cutting spending that he declared an 'ongoing victory,' and said there is simply no fat left to cut in the federal budget," the Washington Times reports.
I remember the election night of 1994 when the Republicans took control of the House for the first time in over 40 years. Dan Rather looke positively sick and annoyed. I went to bed thing that now we were finally going to get the country back on sound financial footing and show the rest of the country that we really meant what we said when we said "less government and less spending". Boy, was I wrong. I am in despair now worse than when the Dems were in charge, becausee I know now there is no one to vote for or any reason to. I may sit out the next election. Why vote? Tax and spend is all I get no matter who I vote for...........
The Democrats are in turmoil over the Roberts nomination and eventual confirmation. The Left is chomping on the Center.
That's funny!.........
Me, too. But I can't argue with my lib associates anymore about "BIG SPENDING" Democrats! They just laff in my face!..........
Bush's fault!
et al...........
If a viable third-party comes along in 08, I may jump.
"today's Republicans . . . outdo Democrats on pork and are in the same ballpark on entitlements."
I don't vote big government. Therefore, I can't vote Republican (unless presented with the rare exception of someone like Pence or Flake).
Elephants and donkeys: fat and stupid.
Not really. The time to dump republicans will be the day after we have runoff elections and can be assured that voting for something other than a dem or a republican will not automatically elect the dem.
The democrats are still a rogue party, and they are the focus of gangsterism in our times.
But, you have to admit, the democrats will never, ever, give you a tax cut.
The only possible one would be the Libertarians. I could vote Libertarian for once. Send a message to 'em. May fall on deaf ears...........
At least the Dems will DO what they SAY they will do!.........
Who cares if they are viable? It mght teach em a lesson, but I doubt it.
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