Republican Moderates May Walk Away From Veto Threat
Big Spenders Back Democrat Appropriations Bills
By Bluey Posted in Congress | Featured Stories — Comments (17) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
The coalition of 147 House Republicans who signed a letter vowing to sustain President Bush's spending vetoes might be falling apart. An article in Congressional Quarterly reveals that some of the Republicans who signed the letter have voted in favor of the Democrats' budget-busting bills; meanwhile, others might try to wiggle their way out of the promise. Here's an excerpt:
“I’m boxing myself in, in a very strange way, and I have to figure it out,” said Christopher Shays of Connecticut, the only House Republican from New England to survive the 2006 election. “I’m going to re-look at the letter I signed and may have to go down to the White House and say I’m not on board.”
So far, the House has considered four fiscal 2008 spending bills that the president has threatened to veto over cost: Energy-Water (HR 2641), Homeland Security (HR 2638), Interior-Environment (HR 2643) and Labor-HHS-Education (HR 3043). Overall, 62 lawmakers who signed the pledge have voted for at least one of those bills.
Four House Republicans — Shays, Wayne T. Gilchrest of Maryland, Steven C. LaTourette of Ohio and Mike D. Rogers of Alabama — who signed the letter nonetheless have voted to pass all four bills.
Just last month I called the letter as a sign of renewed discipline on fiscal restraint, but perhaps I should have known better. We've seen this kind of behavior in the past. It's reminiscent of the promise you'll get on the campaign trail, only to find your lawmaker do the exact opposite in Congress. Let's face it, some politicians just can't get enough pork.
Complicating matters for President Bush is the fact that the Office of Management and Budget is undergoing a transition between directors. With Democrats showing no sign of confirming former Rep. Jim Nussle before the August recess, the administration isn't exactly in the best spot. That's probably part of the Democrats' plan. If they can peel off moderates like Shays (lifetime American Conservative Union rating: 41.6%), Gilchrest (61.2%) and LaTourette (72%), then Bush will be left no choice but to give in to higher spending or face a government shutdown.
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Republican Moderates May Walk Away From Veto Threat 17 Comments (0 topical, 17 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
The very term "non essential" has to make you laugh. Like WTF? What business does government have running anything that is "non-essential". Of course once that is the definition then many more programs would be deemed "essential".
Ask not what you can do for your country, ask what your country can do for you. Washington Elected Elite
who had to hold a town meeting to help him decide how to vote on Clinton's impeachment. His constituents should be embarrassed to have a wet noodle like this representing them, a jelly fish without the sting. But this is Connecticut so they're not.
It's so uplifting to see some republicans addicted to the behavior and policies that helped them lose Congress. But what the hell, they still have their seats and cushy pensions.
You have to keep your eye on the things that matter, to oneself!
"a man's admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him". Tocqueville
First of all, I hardly think losing Chris Shays and Wayne Gilcrest is evidence of anything crumbling, no offense to you, Rob. But if the whole thing does collapse, then President Bush should let the Dems shut the government down. There is no political downside for him. Let the Dems and "moderate" Rs in Congress defend their excess spending. R presidential candidates will get a chance to rail against excess government spending while their D opponents will have to defend their profligate colleagues on the Hill. Even if he doesn't have the votes on override, the president should veto the bills anyhow.
Shut it down, if it comes to it.
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Develop alternatives to existing policies and keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable. Milton Friedman
when I saw Shays' name. Calling him a "moderate" is a stretch. I'd use the term "borderline Republican" instead.
...when they see me they'll say, "There goes Loren Wallace,
the greatest thing to ever climb into a race car."
...sheep's clothing. Getting re elected in one of the bluest of the blue states means some very serious contortions of principle are necessary, ie. shades of Lincoln Chaffee (?)-RI.
Connecticut is purely and simply a Democratic echo chamber, where the political thought of the day is mostly similar to "George Bush should be paying for my prescriptions instead of fighting a war in defense of Democracy and Western Civilization". It's also the state where the local CBS television affiliate, in its afternoon news broadcast, chose to run hit pieces on the late Jerry Falwell and the Republican presidential candidate's debate of the night before, instead of covering the severe thunderstorms and tornado touchdowns that were occurring at that very moment, leaving 54,000 homes without power and families with very large trees suddenly appearing in their living rooms. "The medium is the massage" as Marshall Mcluhan was fond of saying. Modern America, as a result, more closely resembles the children following the pied piper of Hamelin in the fairy tale than a thoughtful, well educated electorate.
...a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right...
---Thomas Paine---
... as time goes on, I am coming to the conclusion that the upside to having them in the coalition is far outweighed by the amount of damage they regularly do to the GOP brand.
It wouldn't bother me at all if they were Conservative in some demonstratable way other than an organizing vote at the beginning of Congress. But 9 times out of 10 ...
George W. Bush: He's A Folder ... Not A Fighter.
is when the GOP has the majority and their bodies (as opposed to their brains) are counted as Republicans. It helps us get the majority and the resultant control of committees, etc. But now that we're in the minority, it is as you say - a damage to "the brand" and (importantly at this point) to attempts to hold fast in cloture votes.
...when they see me they'll say, "There goes Loren Wallace,
the greatest thing to ever climb into a race car."
I'm not convinced that you'd like the long-term results, though. :)
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
... that you are a "moderate?"
:-)
That said, I don't want them to leave - we still need them as heads to count, if not spines.
George W. Bush: He's A Folder ... Not A Fighter.
Heck, I've even been on the record as saying that I'd leave the National Endowment for the Arts alone*.
Sheesh. Advocate one time razing the United Nations to the ground and sowing the ground with salt and you end up with a reputation. :)
Moe
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
*Matched up against agricultural subsidies, the money's trivial - in fact, I'd support increasing the NEA's annual budget by 10% of everything we cut from the Department of Agriculture's - and, shoot, liberals pay taxes too.
Just stuff a few earmarks in for it and nobody will know.
sewn with salt, I'll sign on to increasing NEA funding AND I'll throw in support for comprehensive immigration reform.
With respect to DoA, I'd vote to give YOU 10% of everything you could get slashed.
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CongressCritter™: Never have so few felt like they were owed so much by so many for so little.
I fully expect there to be some differences on social issues in the tent - that don't make you a "moderate." What I do not expect is for there to be that much daylight between us on fiscal, civic and national defense issues.
There's a huge difference between being a Republican in the mold of Bill Weld and being a Republican in the mold of Lincoln Chafee.
George W. Bush: He's A Folder ... Not A Fighter.
on the word "some."
And I'll leave it at that.
...when they see me they'll say, "There goes Loren Wallace,
the greatest thing to ever climb into a race car."
necessarily "them". It's the Republican "leadership" and their unwillingness/inability to enforce any kind of party discipline. I could live will all these bozos if the leadership (starting with Bush) had a list of priorities that were inviolate and enforced voting discipline to the extent that the items on the list got passed.
I don't care - much - how an individual member votes on an individual issue, as long as the issue gets resolved in the "right" way. For instance, as long as we've got the votes to pass war funding, I don't care if Gordon Smith votes for it or not. But if we need his vote to pass the funding bill, he votes for it, his Senate "career" be damned or he loses his committee assignments.
The poster boy for this is Specter. Bush worked to help him beat Pat Toomey in the primary and then win reelection. That help should have been predicated on an iron clad agreement that Specter moved judicial nominees to floor votes in 120 days. Period. No discussion. A nominee takes 121 days, Specter loses his seat on the Judiciary and Jon Kyl can get the job done.
The idea that Voinavich was allowed to vote against John Bolton the first time around is beyond maddening. Same for Chafee the second time around. Both of those guys should have paid big time for those votes. But I guess we can't expect leadership to do something that would hurt their friends feelings.
Some things just should not be negotiable.
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CongressCritter™: Never have so few felt like they were owed so much by so many for so little.
After all, only "non-essential" services are shut down. And, BTW, if the Democrats do get around to passing funding bills, no back pay for employees.
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CongressCritter™: Never have so few felt like they were owed so much by so many for so little.