October
10, 2005
House GOP Somersault
By Robert
Novak
WASHINGTON -- House
Speaker J. Dennis Hastert is an old wrestler, and last Thursday
night he used a classic move of his sport by quickly reversing
positions. On behalf of the Republican leadership, Hastert went
before his colleagues to embrace essentially the same package
of spending that two weeks earlier he had scourged conservative
House members for proposing. The change was a matter of necessity
rather than choice.
It was required
to quell the first really serious split in House Republican ranks
since the GOP took control of the chamber a decade ago. But the
rancor was not limited to Capitol Hill. As House Republicans convened
their closed-door conference at 7 p.m. Thursday, 1,000 conservatives
were in a foul mood eight blocks away at a black-tie dinner celebrating
the 50th anniversary of National Review magazine. They
were outraged by the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme
Court, viewing it less as an aberration by President Bush than
a last straw.
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In that climate, it
was a bare minimum for Republican leaders to back away from their
scandalous browbeating two weeks ago of the conservative Republican
Study Committee (RSC) for proposing Operation Offset. So, Hastert
echoed the RSC's plans to offset massive Hurricane Katrina spending
with reduced spending elsewhere. The question will be how serious
the leadership is in stuffing these offsets down the throats of
free-spending senior Republicans who hold positions of power in
the House.
RSC members approached
Thursday night's meeting fearing another mindless performance
by party leaders. At a Sept. 21 closed-door conference, Republican
leaders made clear they would not tolerate criticism of their
spending. Rep. Mike Pence, the RSC chairman, said not a word.
He had been battered personally the night before by Hastert and
other GOP leaders.
Consequently, what
happened Thursday was a most pleasant surprise to rank-and-file
members. Hastert's plan, presented by Budget Committee Chairman
Jim Nussle, would increase cuts in mandatory spending from $35
billion to "at least" $50 billion, offset disaster spending
on a dollar-for-dollar basis, press recisions of existing spending,
and eliminate "duplicative, wasteful and/or unnecessary"
programs. It was about what Pence and his colleagues proposed
two weeks earlier. What's more, Hastert is pushing the first mid-session
amendment of the budget in 28 years.
The entire Republican
leadership endorsed the Hastert plan, but the conference was far
from unanimous. One standing committee chairman after another
rose to take issue with the speaker's plan. Rep. Don Young, chairman
of the House Transportation Committee, is the reigning King of
Pork in the House. It is inconceivable that Young would meekly
slim down the pork-filled highway bill (especially earmarks for
his state of Alaska) at the speaker's behest.
On the floor of the
House Friday, Pence issued a polite victory statement. "Some
of us thought we should pay for the big cost of Hurricane Katrina
by cutting big government," he said, adding that "we're
beginning to do just that." However, speaking "on behalf
of House conservatives," he said, "we are pleased but
not content, we are encouraged but not satisfied" because
the actual cutting will be harder than winning the debate. Pence
sounded a little like Ronald Reagan's "trust but verify"
reaction to Mikhail Gorbachev.
Pence and the other
conservatives have sound reason to want verification. Even if
acting Majority Leader Roy Blunt is able to tame the standing
committee chairmen, other obstacles loom. Hastert and the other
Republican leaders have no intention of abandoning their earmarked
pork. Bush has no intention of trimming the elephantine Medicare
prescription drug subsidy.
Had House
members been able to attend the National Review banquet
at the National Building Museum, they would have gotten an earful.
While there to honor the magazine's founder William F. Buckley
Jr. and all he has done for the conservative movement, these faithful
conservatives were not shy about privately expressing their intense
unhappiness. I could find nobody there who was not disappointed
by the Miers nomination, but they also were aggrieved by the record
of spending and big government by the Republican president and
the Republican Congress. Denny Hastert's somersault is just the
beginning of what is needed to satisfy them.
***
In a recent column, I incorrectly listed Republican Rep. Jeff
Flake of Arizona as self-term limited. I was unaware that a year
ago he reneged on his promise to serve only three terms in Congress.
Copyright
2005 Creators Syndicate
