They just don't get it.

House Republican leaders suffered a humiliating legislative setback Wednesday when a large faction of GOP lawmakers rebelled against a leadership proposal that had drawn the opposition of powerful outside activists.

The mutiny forced House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Va.) to abruptly pull from the floor legislation to shore up a program that allows people with preexisting health conditions to buy into an insurance pool for high-risk patients before they are able to transition to coverage under President Obama’s health-care law.

...

“Fiscal conservatives should be squarely focused on repealing Obamacare, not strengthening it by supporting the parts that are politically attractive,” Andy Roth, a vice president of Club for Growth, wrote to lawmakers last week. Heritage Action, the political arm of the the conservative Heritage Foundation, joined in the opposition.

...

Cantor pulled the bill after trying to push his rank-and-file members to support it during a closed-door huddle on Wednesday. He argued that “helping the sick people” was a worthy conservative cause. “This is the right thing to do,” Cantor said. “We’re trying to find solutions here.”

Boehner couldn't use his usual trick of letting the Democrats do his dirty work because they all were set to vote against the proposal because it would have funded the program with money from an existing ObamaCare slush fund. So the GOP leadership needed almost all Republicans on board but those crazy right wing conservatives wouldn't play ball.

Where to start with this?

On a tactical level, the House GOP leadership is incompetent. They keep trying to push things without having an accurate read on their caucus. This is legislating 101 and Boehner, Cantor and McCarthy keep failing it.

On a policy level, the GOP has always supported the idea of subsidized high risk pools (a dubious idea at all but play along for a minute) but at the STATE level. Now with Cantor's infatuation with resurrecting "compassionate conservatism" everything is a federal issue.

Most importantly though is the political considerations. If the GOP game is now to win over "moderates" by "fixing" ObamaCare with a different basket of goodies, the game is over. The GOP won't be an opposition party, it will simply be the right wing of the Democrats trying to make the messes the liberals make work a little better.

This is my problem with the notion that if we do amnesty than the GOP can try and win these "natural conservatives" over. The problem, aside from the fact that Hispanics aren't conservatives (natural or otherwise) is the GOP hasn't shown the ability to win anyone to conservationism since Reagan. The main reason for that is the GOP isn't a very conservative party. As I've written before, that's understandable since the country isn't very conservative.

Now that the House Republican leadership has been smacked down again but conservatives, does anyone doubt that Boehner will bring immigration up and pass it with Democratic votes if need be?

Will THAT finally be enough for conservatives to realize that their interests and those of the Republican party are too divergent to continue together? I'd hope so but until I see it, I have my doubts.

-snip-

Read more:http://minx.cc/?post=339439

Quote: Eglman wrote in post #1

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They just don't get it.

House Republican leaders suffered a humiliating legislative setback Wednesday

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Quote: Eglman wrote in post #1

---

They just don't get it.

House Republican leaders suffered a humiliating legislative setback Wednesday when a large faction of GOP lawmakers rebelled against a leadership proposal that had drawn the opposition of powerful outside activists.

The mutiny forced House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Va.) to abruptly pull from the floor legislation to shore up a program that allows people with preexisting health conditions to buy into an insurance pool for high-risk patients before they are able to transition to coverage under President Obama’s health-care law.

...

“Fiscal conservatives should be squarely focused on repealing Obamacare, not strengthening it by supporting the parts that are politically attractive,” Andy Roth, a vice president of Club for Growth, wrote to lawmakers last week. Heritage Action, the political arm of the the conservative Heritage Foundation, joined in the opposition.

...

Cantor pulled the bill after trying to push his rank-and-file members to support it during a closed-door huddle on Wednesday. He argued that “helping the sick people” was a worthy conservative cause. “This is the right thing to do,” Cantor said. “We’re trying to find solutions here.”

Boehner couldn't use his usual trick of letting the Democrats do his dirty work because they all were set to vote against the proposal because it would have funded the program with money from an existing ObamaCare slush fund. So the GOP leadership needed almost all Republicans on board but those crazy right wing conservatives wouldn't play ball.

Where to start with this?

On a tactical level, the House GOP leadership is incompetent. They keep trying to push things without having an accurate read on their caucus. This is legislating 101 and Boehner, Cantor and McCarthy keep failing it.

On a policy level, the GOP has always supported the idea of subsidized high risk pools (a dubious idea at all but play along for a minute) but at the STATE level. Now with Cantor's infatuation with resurrecting "compassionate conservatism" everything is a federal issue.

Most importantly though is the political considerations. If the GOP game is now to win over "moderates" by "fixing" ObamaCare with a different basket of goodies, the game is over. The GOP won't be an opposition party, it will simply be the right wing of the Democrats trying to make the messes the liberals make work a little better.

This is my problem with the notion that if we do amnesty than the GOP can try and win these "natural conservatives" over. The problem, aside from the fact that Hispanics aren't conservatives (natural or otherwise) is the GOP hasn't shown the ability to win anyone to conservationism since Reagan. The main reason for that is the GOP isn't a very conservative party. As I've written before, that's understandable since the country isn't very conservative.

Now that the House Republican leadership has been smacked down again but conservatives, does anyone doubt that Boehner will bring immigration up and pass it with Democratic votes if need be?

Will THAT finally be enough for conservatives to realize that their interests and those of the Republican party are too divergent to continue together? I'd hope so but until I see it, I have my doubts.

-snip-

Read more:http://minx.cc/?post=339439

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