GOP Stakes Its Claim With Stimulus Vote; Small Government Returns as Maxim

The Washington Post ^ | 2009-01-30 | Perry Bacon Jr. & Paul Kane

[rabscuttle385]

The unanimous vote by House Republicans against President Obama's stimulus plan provided an early indication that the GOP hopes to regain power by becoming the champion of small government, a reputation many felt slipped away during the high-spending Bush years.

The bill passed easily despite the opposition of all 177 Republican House members, but party leaders delighted in what they considered a victory after two straight electoral drubbings and much soul-searching about what the party stands for.

"How about those House Republicans?" cheered Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), a vocal small-government advocate, at a Heritage Foundation appearance yesterday.

[rabscuttle385]

DeMint ping!

[rabscuttle385]

The War on Pork. "This bill is not a stimulus, ladies and gentlemen; it is a mugging. It is a fraud." —Jim DeMint, January 29, 2009 FR Keywords: waronpork, porkulus, socialism Please tag all relevant threads with the aforementioned keywords. This can be a very high-volume ping list at times. To join the ping list: FReepmail rabscuttle385 with the subject line add  waronpork. (Stop getting pings by sending the subject line drop waronpork.)

[GeronL]

The left is SO angry by this vote.

It means they’re worried

[3niner]

If they had worked toward “small government” for the last 10 years, they’d still be in power.

[DustyMoment]

One vote does not a trend make.

The ‘Pubbies in the House AND Senate will have to do more . . . . . . a LOT more to convince me that they have finally turned away from the dark side and are returning to their core conservative principles.

[EternalVigilance]

To a starving man, crumbs from the table seem like a smorgasbord.

[cherry]

any leaning against the barry machine is reason to celebrate, and we had better appreciate what the Pubs can do....any little thing they do against barry IS a big thing....

pubs aren't perfect but they are the best we have and the only chance we have is to get more Pubs elected next time around....

that means of course, we'll have to stop bitchin about them from the get go....

[rabscuttle385]

pubs aren't perfect but they are the best we have

I loathe that line of reasoning because it's idiotic, to say the least. No human is perfect. Duh. So what?

and the only chance we have is to get more Pubs elected next time around....

Wrong again.

The only chance we have is to get more principled Reaganesque conservatives elected. That means, not just socially conservative, or just fiscally conservative, or strong on national defense (not necessarily national offense).

Unless, of course, you still believe in the faulty assumption that "Republicans good, all others bad." [Note that under such logic, you may end up electing more RINOs and, Heaven forbid, more McCains and Grahams. And, what's even worse: the GOP leadership will start taking you for granted again and resume its leftward drift.]

[rabscuttle385]

Ping to post 9!

[pankot]

The Repubs have hung an albatross around the Dimwits necks; when the economy tanks the Dimwits will be up s*** creek getting the blame since they voted it.

[TigersEye]

If they had worked toward “small government” for the last 10 years, they’d still be in power.

I believe that is true with all my heart. I thought and still think that any real conservative could have beaten either Hillary or 0bama and beaten them badly. So much more so if the GOP Congress had been standing for conservative principles.

[DoughtyOne]

I think you’re absolutely right. I don’t buy the idea that Conservative principles don’t sell any longer. What I do buy is that very few people are selling Conservative principles any longer.

That has to change!

[DoughtyOne]

I agree.

[torchthemummy]

And once again a LMSM member fails to mention that the only bipartisan aspect of the vote was eleven Dems voting with the Pubbies.

[torchthemummy]

The point the Pubbies need to make is that this bill should ONLY contain apsects that actually are stimulus and all the rest can be thrown into other bills and argued about later.

Only tax cuts that immediately allow businesses to hire and expand will work.

[Gondring]

Right on target.

[Grunthor]

“GOP Stakes Its Claim With Stimulus Vote; Small Government Returns as Maxim”

We’ll see when they vote.

[Grunthor]

pubs aren’t perfect but they are the best we have and the only chance we have is to get more Pubs elected next time around....

that means of course, we’ll have to stop bitchin about them from the get go....

---

How about we get more CONSERVATIVES elected next time ‘round? Run of the mill RINO’s can GTH.

[Grunthor]

Very well said.