The GOP's Policy Deficit
Republicans are positioned to take back the House and possibly the Senate this fall, but have offered little explanation of what they intend to do with their new power.
Earlier this year, rising Republican star Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin introduced “A Roadmap for America’s Future,” a comprehensive budget plan that would freeze most discretionary spending and includes a wide array of entitlement and tax reform measures. Liberal Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein, of all people, called the proposal “daring” and gave Ryan measured praise for attempting to deal with America’s massive deficit. “[Ryan’s] proposal is among the few I’ve seen that’s willing to propose solutions in proportion to the problem,” Klein wrote. “Whether or not you like his answer, you have to give him credit for stepping up to the chalkboard.” But the roadmap has few supporters within the Republican congressional caucus and as The Atlantic noted, Ryan recently offered a blunt explanation as to why this is the case:
The GOP is running away from a realistic deficit plan because they’re afraid that it would kill their political prospects in November, Rep. Paul Ryan said at a presentation of his budget roadmap at the Brookings Institution [on July 22]. When asked why Republicans aren’t flocking to his bold government reform, Ryan responded, without hesitation: “They’re talking to their pollsters and their pollsters are saying, ‘Stay away from this, we’re going to win an election.’”
Ryan’s candid statement goes to the heart of a troubling political reality: Republicans are well-positioned to take back control of the House and possibly the Senate this fall, but have offered little to no explanation of what they actually intend to do with their newfound authority in the event of a takeover. Congressman Pete Sessions and Senator Jon Cornyn – the respective Texan heads of the party’s two congressional campaign committees – appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press on July 19. When asked by the host, David Gregory, “if Republicans do get back into power, what are they going to do?” the former could only talk vaguely of the need “to live within our means” and “make sure we read the bills.” The two fared no better as Gregory continued to press them on the potential policy agenda of a new Republican Congress:
MR. GREGORY: But, Congressman, that's a, that's a pretty gauzy agenda so far. I mean, what specific--what painful choices are Republicans prepared to make? Are they going to campaign on repealing health care, for instance, repealing financial regulation? Would you like to see those two things done?
REP. SESSIONS: Well, first of all, let's go right to it. We're going to balance the budget. We should live within our own means, and we should read the bills and work with the American people.
MR. GREGORY: How do you do it? Tell me how you do it. Name a painful choice that Republicans are prepared to say we ought to make.
REP. SESSIONS: Well, first of all, we need to make sure that as we look at all that we are spending in Washington, D.C., with, not only the, the entitlement spending but also the bigger government, we cannot afford anymore. We have to empower the free enterprise system. See, this is where...
MR. GREGORY: Congressman, these are not specifics.
--
MR. GREGORY: Senator, I'm sorry, I'm not hearing an answer here on specific--what painful choices to really deal with the deficit. Is Social Security on the table? What will Republicans do that, that, that would give them--like ‘94, there was a Contract With America. What are voters going to say, “Hey, this is what Republicans will say yes to”?
SEN. CORNYN: Well, the president has a debt commission that reports December the 1st, and I think we'd all like to see what they come back with. We've got three of our most outstanding members on that commission--Mike Crapo, Tom Coburn and Judd Gregg--and I--my hope is they'll come back with a bipartisan solution to the debt and particularly entitlement reform, as you, as you mentioned. But I...
MR. GREGORY: But wait a minute, conservatives need a, a Democratic president's debt commission to figure out what it is they want to cut?
Republican House leaders hoped the public could help develop a policy agenda by soliciting suggestions via a website: America Speaking Out. Unsurprisingly, however, the site has been hobbled by a lack of serious participants and a slew of ludicrous submissions – some probably the work of Democratic pranksters.
Thus far, most Republicans seem content to avoid laying out concrete legislative proposals and simply ride the wave of frustration and anti-government sentiment currently gripping the country to victory this November.
Sidestepping the battle of ideas is not worthy of the Republican Party and not worthy of America. “It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better,” President Teddy Roosevelt famously remarked. “The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.” Paul Ryan, at least, is in the arena. Who will join him?