Can the GOP move past tea party "number crunching"?
For the past two years, since winning back control of the House of Representatives, the Republican Party has had a remarkably singular focus on cutting government spending.
The debt limit needs to be raised? Not without cutting spending. New Jersey needs emergency relief funds after a hurricane? Some conservatives first wanted to find a way to offset those costs.
The focus on spending was far from a surprise: The GOP made huge gains in the 2010 election on a wave of tea party zeal based on concerns about President Obama's government overreach. The debt, meanwhile, has increased $5.8 trillion under Mr. Obama's leadership. The attention on this issue, however, hasn't paid off in the polls or the ballot box. The president easily won re-election last year, while Democrats made gains in both the House and the Senate. The latest CBS News/ New York Times poll shows that congressional Republicans have just a 19 percent approval rating.
With the 2012 elections behind them, the Republican Party is now trying to regroup. A week after House Republicans met behind closed doors to ponder their future, GOP leaders are gathering at the Republican National Committee (RNC)'s winter meeting this week in Charlotte, N.C., to discuss the way forward, which means moving beyond spending cuts.
"Today's conservatism is completely wrapped up in solving the hideous mess that is the federal budget, the burgeoning deficits, the mammoth federal debt, the shortfall in our entitlement programs...even as we invent new entitlement programs," Gov. Bobby Jindal, R-La., a potential 2016 presidential candidate, said at the meeting last night. "We seem to have an obsession with government bookkeeping. This is a rigged game, and it is the wrong game for us to play."
"We as Republicans have to accept that government number crunching - even conservative number crunching - is not the answer to our nation's problems," Jindal continued. "We must not become the party of austerity. We must become the party of growth."
Moving away from a message of austerity will be difficult, given that Congress must still decide whether to avert the looming "sequestration" cuts set to kick in March 1. They must also in the coming months raise the nation's debt limit while explaining to voters what it means for the nation's bills and for the nation's future spending. But even as they broach these thorny issues, GOP leaders say they need to do a better job explaining their economic positions to voters, working on other issues and expanding their appeal beyond their conservative base.
Jindal and other leaders stress that one of their most immediate challenges is simply recalibrating their message -- not changing their principles.
"We have to a better job connecting the dots for the American people," Republican strategist Terry Holt told CBSNews.com. Holt worked as a senior communication strategist for three presidential campaigns, including the Bush-Cheney campaigns, and served as communications director for former House Majority Leader Dick Armey.
"Concerns that Republicans have about the debt and deficit have to be translated into the everyday impact it has on average Americans," Holt continued. "We often have this problem when we talk about 'entitlement reform' -- those words aren't particularly effective in communicating what the crisis is there. When we talk about fixing Medicare, it's often in budgetary terms. Or when we should be talking about making health care better, we're instead talking about making health care cheaper."
- no previous page
- next
1/2
Popular in Politics
- Michelle Obama decries "slander" that educated blacks are "trying to act white" Play Video
- Adviser on White House scandals: "Partisan fishing expeditions" won't distract Obama 172 Comments
- Benghazi-disciplined diplomat a prolific poet
- Romney condemns "breach of trust" in Washington
- Obama: Racism is no excuse for not excelling Play Video
- Republicans continue beating Benghazi drum 110 Comments
- Officials on Benghazi: "We made mistakes, but without malice"
- Obama to discuss legality of drone program
If not the GOP is destined to extinction...
Thanks for proving my point, even though AVERAGE post-WWII federal revenue is closer to 18.5% of GDP, which we NEVER attained after 2001, and it actually fell to a mere 14% of GDP which obviously cannot sustain our spending -- especially when our national security is costing us $1.3+ trillion each year!
You don't actually 'think' that 2011 gave us revenue of 18% of GDP, do you? That year we had revenue of a mere 14% of GDP, and still a $1.3+ Trillion bill for the military-industrial complex!
-----------
No we didn't have 18% of GDP in revenues in 2011, 18% would have been 2.7 trillion we only raised about 2.3 trillion, so it was about 15.5%. The point is, even if we would have had 18% in revenues we still would have ran a deficit of over 900 billion. There is simply no way around it, we need to cut federal spending in a drastic way. Yes that includes the military industrial complex and a whole bunch of other things as well.
It doesn't, but economically-challenged teabagging extremists don't seem to understand what the current drivers of our deficits happen to be, and conveniently forget that the first time in our history, we waged the longest WARS while cutting taxes.
Our national security cost was less than $300 billion in 2000, and had ballooned to a whopping $1.2+ Trillion by 2008 -- definitely not sustainable while cutting revenue to 14% of GDP.
---------------
Since 1950, revenue from all sources has AVERAGED around 18% of GDP(sometimes being higher and sometimes lower), despite top tax rates that have been anywhere from over 90% to 28%. Regardless of the many efforts to get more revenues, that's pretty much what the government can expect to have for spending.
If you take the GDP for 2011, 15.09 Trillion x 18% = 2.71 trillion. The amount spent in 2011 was 3.6 trillion, obviously we don't have a tax problem...IT'S A SPENDING ADDICTION. Yes, it is both sides of the isle in Congress and the President that are the problem here. It's called the welfare-warfare state.
Thanks for proving my point, even though AVERAGE post-WWII federal revenue is closer to 18.5% of GDP, which we NEVER attained after 2001, and it actually fell to a mere 14% of GDP which obviously cannot sustain our spending -- especially when our national security is costing us $1.3+ trillion each year!
You don't actually 'think' that 2011 gave us revenue of 18% of GDP, do you? That year we had revenue of a mere 14% of GDP, and still a $1.3+ Trillion bill for the military-industrial complex!
Article I gives the POWERS of Congress; Article II gives the POWERS of the President; and Article III gives the POWERS of the Judiciary.
Comrade Obama should be impeached for taking adavantage of the mentally impaired Liberals by getting them to vote for him.
Yes, and while I'm not holding my breath for our dysfunctional congress to start working for ALL Americans, nor for the rabid right-wing nut jobs to cease and desist with their vitriolic political rhetoric and attacks on everyone with a different opinion, look, sexual preference or religious belief.
The republican party has a terrible, perhaps fatal, case of indigestion. It swallowed the tea party and now can neither digest it nor rid itself of the rancid meal. Unfortunately, their indigestion is making all of America sick, and it's up to them to kick the extremists to the curb for good!
It doesn't, but economically-challenged teabagging extremists don't seem to understand what the current drivers of our deficits happen to be, and conveniently forget that the first time in our history, we waged the longest WARS while cutting taxes.
Our national security cost was less than $300 billion in 2000, and had ballooned to a whopping $1.2+ Trillion by 2008 -- definitely not sustainable while cutting revenue to 14% of GDP.
The once-battered housing sector is recovering, which is boosting construction and home prices.
More home building will likely increase job growth. And economists expect construction firms to add jobs this year as the housing recovery strengthens.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/01/24/unemployment-claims/1861011/
------------------------------
YELLOW_BELLY replies: "You do know that's because of job growth in Red states that are involved with oil and gas exploration".
------------------------------
Hey yellow_belly -- that's not true at all, and only one sector of our economy, since housing/construction has led in every post-WWII recovery EXCEPT from the bush/cheney Great Recession, where deregulation of the Wall Street GREED completely destroyed that economic sector for years!
I'm tired of listening to all you fox/rush parrots spewing the same GLOOM and DOOM B.S., recommending that we put all our eggs into one lousy basket for the OIL/GAS profiteers, when we need to grow our economy in all areas which also includes renewable energy.
Hey, and just look at the stock market which the mormon cultist told us needed him to soar. He lied like the rest of the scheming republicans!
EARLYSAID replies: "President Obama is the sane and responsible man with a republican party who don't believe in science, hate to admit to climate change and really do not want women to have rights even against violence. Republicans have alienated so many people in the country with hateful talk and mean actions. Now they think anyone but the most rabid Foxites believe them - Not going to happen".
The republican party has a terrible, perhaps fatal, case of indigestion. It swallowed the tea party and now can neither digest it nor rid itself of the rancid meal. Unfortunately, their indigestion is making all of America sick, and if they cannot remove this extremism of calling President Obama a "socialist" or "Marxist," and calling Americans "freeloaders" looking for "gifts" or "free stuff," their numbers will continue to dwindle.