Facing big expectations, GOP meets to draft 2015 game plan
After the Republican Party's resounding victory in the midterm elections, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, promised that the GOP-led Congress would get past the gridlock that's defined the legislative body for about half a decade.
"The Senate in the last couple of years basically doesn't do anything," McConnell said in November. "We're going to function."
It wasn't exactly a bold promise, but McConnell's pledge to govern the Senate more effectively is more than many skeptical Americans expect from the new Republican majority. Just 43 percent of Americans expect Congress to accomplish more than usual in the next two years, according to the latest CBS News poll, while 40 percent expect them to accomplish less.
Meanwhile, even after handing the Republican Party control of both the House and the Senate for the first time since 2006, as many as 57 percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of the GOP.
While the public is clearly skeptical of the party, Americans also think the new GOP-led Congress wields significant power: 57 percent say Republicans in Congress will have more influence over the direction of the country than President Obama, while just 29 percent expect the president to have more influence. That's a dramatic change from January 2013, following Mr. Obama's re-election, when 59 percent thought the president had more influence.
- Americans' view of the economy most positive in eight years
- Obama and Congress look for common goals
- House votes to block Obama's immigration policies
So after promising a more effective Congress, and facing new expectations from the public to steer the country in the right direction, the GOP is huddling for two days in Hershey, Pennsylvania to draft its game plan for the year. The two-day retreat that starts Thursday marks the first time in 10 years that House and Senate Republicans have gathered at a retreat together.
Hosted at the Hershey Lodge, the retreat will give the new GOP caucus a chance to hear from some of the more mainstream conservatives like Peggy Noonan and Jay Leno. It should also give the new Republican majority in the Senate a chance to align expectations with the more tea party-tinted House.
"It'll be a good opportunity for us to, I think, start a conversation with our colleagues in the House... and exchange ideas about the agenda," Sen. John Thune, R-South Dakota, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, said Tuesday, "to talk about the importance of creating jobs, growing the economy, strengthening the middle class."
GOP leaders insist they're going to focus this year on economic issues, but the party already found itself divided this week over a vote on a much more politically-loaded issue -- immigration reform. While voting on a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security, the House approved a series of amendments to roll back the executive actions Mr. Obama has taken on immigration.
One amendment approved by the House would roll back the president's new plan to defer the deportation of approximately 4 million undocumented immigrants. Another amendment would eliminate the program that grants reprieve to the so-called "Dreamers" -- certain undocumented immigrants who were brought into the country as children. That amendment also passed, but more than two dozen moderate Republicans joined Democrats in voting against it.
The bill as it stands is unlikely to get enough votes to overcome a Democrat-led filibuster in the Senate. Some Senate Republicans have said they disagree with the tactic of targeting Mr. Obama's immigration policies in the funding bill. "I know there's a lot of consensus on our side that the last thing we need to do is to do something to jeopardize the security of our own citizens," Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tennessee, said.
On top of that, the legislation of course faces a veto threat from the White House. "It's never a good time to muck around with DHS funding," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Wednesday.
In fact, even as congressional leaders met this week with Mr. Obama -- with all lawmakers expressing cautious optimism about working together -- the White House has come down hard against the GOP's agenda so far. The White House has issued no fewer than five veto threats since the new Republican Congress took over. Democrats have charged that the GOP's agenda amounts to "an anti-Obama agenda," but Republicans argue the president could be missing out on an opportunity to work with the new leadership on the Hill.
"In divided government, we've achieved big items, from reforming the tax code to reforming welfare," House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-California, said Tuesday. "Newt Gingrich, Bill Clinton, they were able to find common ground, and I don't think it started with veto threats."
In spite of the disagreement over the DHS bill, McCarthy said that heading into this week's Hershey retreat, " I believe we're starting it correctly, with the House and Senate Republicans together, uniting in an agenda that moves America forward."
