Bush believes his narrow election victory gives him a mandate to pursue a radical conservative agenda. But some House Republicans, bolstered by their own gains, not only have a conservative agenda their own, they’re also anxious to take a second look at some of Bush’s previous ideas.
Some conservative Republicans in the House want to roll back much of the new Medicare drug benefit and the “No Child Left Behind” education law that President Bush made domestic hallmarks of his first term, a GOP lawmaker said Wednesday.
While praising Bush’s leadership on fighting terrorism and passing tax cuts, Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana said it was important for Republicans to reassert conservative values that led them to control of Congress.
“The fate of the Republican majority … will be largely determined by whether or not we rediscover those principles of limited government that more than anything else propelled us to majority status,” said Pence, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, a group of more than 100 conservative House members.
He added that the House GOP is also committed to “restoring the First Amendment protection of freedom of speech by pursuing changes in new campaign finance laws.” This means, of course, gutting McCain-Feingold, which the right has always hated.
It’s hard to say how many House Republicans Pence was representing at the National Press Club, but it’s nevertheless interesting that one of the most conservative members of the House, just as the new House is starting its work and before Bush’s inauguration, is already giving hints about a contentious inter-party dispute.
Indeed, this may be one of the more unexpected surprises of the next two years. While most of us worry about whether Dems will be able to stick together and mount a half-way effective opposition, just below the surface there are signs that the Republican caucus may be more divided than they’ve been in a while. Already there’s talk that congressional Republicans won’t go for Bush’s immigration plan, they think sweeping tax “reform” is unnecessary, and Social Security privatization “scares them to death,” leading some to already indicate they won’t go along with Bush’s scheme.
Now these same congressional Republicans might also want to undercut NCLB, McCain-Feingold, and Bush’s Medicare agenda? This could become quite interesting.