Will Obama’s Fiscal Overreach Keep Republican United?
Only if Republicans hold firm in standing for the principles of fiscal responsiblity which helped us win elections in 1980, 1984, 1988 and 1994, principles with which Barack Obama made a rhetorical end run around the GOP in 2008, racking up the highest popular vote percentage of any non-incumbent Democat in 75 years.
Let me remind you once again that in the third debate, then-candidate Obama said “what I’ve done throughout this campaign is to propose a net spending cut.“Â Instead, he’s given us the exact opposite.
No wonder when Democrats talk to the media, they remind us of the congressional Republicans sorry spending record over the past decade. They seek to compromise the credibility of Republicans so as to reduce the impact of their criticism of their own spending spree. But, just because Republicans overspent in the first few years of this century doesn’t excuse Democrats from their current profligacy.
Especially given the presidential campaign of the nation’s leading Democrat.
The contrast between Obama’s campaign rhetoric and his budget, now approved in slightly amendedd form by the Democratic Congress, has made it a lot easier for Republicans. Jennifer Rubin think it’s “given Republicans plenty of running room” and quotes Bill Kristol’s explanation:
And the Republican Party is united in a principled way. I don’t think people can look at it — independent voters can’t look at the Republicans now and say they’re just being opportunistic or, you know, knee-jerk anti-Obama.
They object in principle to this massive expansion of government’s role in the economy, taking over the health care system, et cetera. And I think it allows — I think he’s allowed the Republican Party to recover more quickly than one would have expected and conservatives, actually, to recover more quickly than one might have expected after the 2008 elections.
In the Senate vote on the President’s budget, even the recent Republican renegades (Collins, Snowe, Specter) returned to the fold, keeping the caucus united.
By overreaching on spending, the President has made it easier for Republicans to regroup and recover. The longer Republicans remain united against the president’s spendthrift policies, the more ready our party will show that they’ve learned the lesson of the last two elections, the more quickly our party will restore its good name.
Obama who, in his campaign, recognized that Republicans were vulnerable on the spending issue hasn’t learn the lesson from his own electoral success. Which might make it quite difficult for him to repeat it.
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I’m waxing in the belief that the President just doesn’t care.
Recall those heady days when the GOP ran the show: there were endless debates on the right. Should we adopt incrementalism in the hope of securing a lengthy majority? Or should we jump in legislatively ‘whole-hog’ fearing that the power won’t last?
It seems clear to me that Obama has chosen the latter course.
Comment by MFS — April 7, 2009 @ 8:52 am - April 7, 2009
It’s easy to oppose Obama. It’s more difficult to run against Bush, especially when the liberal arsenal is more than willing to point out that deficit spending isn’t the problem, just the magnitude ($400 billion vs. $1 trillion). That, coupled with all the goodwill across the globe and the media insisting we’re tripping the light fantastic — the GOP has a difficult road ahead. It isn’t about uniting current Republicans, it’s about enlarging the tent.
The certification of Franken (which appears to be imminent) will make it that much tougher, although his presence in the Senate may be a blessing if he’s allowed enough room to make the a** of himself we know he can. Problem is, he’ll be an a** with a vote and six years is a long, long time.
Comment by Ignatius — April 7, 2009 @ 9:14 am - April 7, 2009
The problem is, if they can only stand against spending when they are the underdogs, why would anyone give them more power again?
I’m registered Republican, and don’t think I could ever vote Democrat again (last time I did I was in my early 20s) but honestly, I have completely lost faith in this party. I see no one that believes in the dynamism that Postrel writes about. Everyone wants to control us and spend our money on what they think we should be doing.
It’s bad enough that at almost 40 for the first time in my life I’m considering leaving. But am not sure where since, no matter how bad it gets, it seems everywhere else is still worse.
Comment by plutosdad — April 7, 2009 @ 10:29 am - April 7, 2009
The Republicans have the “for the children” Democrats in a strangle hold, if they will simply pound away at bankruptcy in social security, medicare, deficit interest payments, (nationalized health care) and unfunded state mandates.
Glenn Beck has found a way to get these “complex” concepts explained in short segments. Certainly the GOP could do the same. They could watch some old Ross Perot tapes, for instance.
The GOP only needs to decide that the time of the tea parties has come and to go full bore for fiscal saneness. If they have to throw Bush overboard because of his wasteful spending, so what? Most of us screamed at him for it while he was engaged in it.
The GOP could even get Jimmy Carter to talk about zero-based budgeting! There is plenty of room for a Joe the Plumber/blue collar redo of the Concord Coalition. The “blue dog” Democrats are out there and fiscal responsibility is their reason for being “blue dogs.” The GOP just needs to keep the “rich guys” on the side lines and let the common sense “little people” carry the day.
Comment by heliotrope — April 7, 2009 @ 10:39 am - April 7, 2009
Dan, the road to a Restoration of Power for the GOP is found in forging new coalitions within segments of the voter base that are growing –and less attention on those segments that are wasting away.
If fiscal conservatism (in all its aspects) can bring hispanics, immigrants, green collar workers, females, independents, professionals, 24-39 yr olds and others into the tent, great. Going back to the days of Ken Mehlman at the RNC: “Mi partido es su partido”.
And the GOP’s message of fiscal conservatism has to be repeated, reworked, reapplied and rereapplied to each and every circumstance where GOP leaders can say “Policy X or Action Z by Obama-Pelosi is wrong; we know Item A is the correct course and Washington is still broken.”
It’s all about picking the right issues, the politics of addition and not subtraction and capitalizing on each and every mistake by Obama & his ChicagoLand pol-pals. Where there isn’t a mistake, create one –like the Dems did for years under Reagan-Bush-Bush.
For instance, I like Newt’s question of the moment this weekend: Since Biden was portrayed in the campaign as this seasoned, wise elder statesman with vastly superior credentials, why wasn’t he walking next to Obama this week instead of Michelle? Why wasn’t he sent to North Korea? Why has the Obama shop stuck GoodOl’Joe in the coat closet with the pencil-pushers to assure taxpayers that the Stimulus Spending won’t be entirely about corruption, fraud, waste and abuse?
When it came to bean counting exercises in the Senate, no one ever –EVER– thought GoodOl’Joe could count on his fingers, let alone into the trillions. He’s a statesman. He’s a diplomat. He’s a war hawk. He’s great with the copying machine, too, if you need someone else’s speech boosted.
Attracting the expanding segments in the voter base. The right issues milked ’til the cow kicks.
Comment by Michigan-Matt — April 7, 2009 @ 11:26 am - April 7, 2009