What’s Happening with Conservatives and the Tea Party

by Art Kelly

1.  In a week when the national debt went over $15 Trillion, the U.S. House of Representatives failed to pass a constitutional amendment to prohibit deficit spending and the Super Committee failed to agree on a 10-year plan to reduce the deficit.

In the same week, the television program 60 Minutes found evidence that both Democrats and Republicans in Congress were using insider information to profit in the stock market.

Before these developments, the approval rating for Congress was already tiny.  The Gallup Poll found it was a record low of 13%.  Rasmussen Reports measured it at only 9%.  When news polls are produced, it is possible, the approval rating for Congress may actually sink to a flat zero. 

The political implications suggest many incumbents of both parties may be defeated in the 2012 elections.

The national debt goes up every day.  As of November 21, the U.S. Department of the Treasury recorded it at exactly $15,042,288,403,018.43.  That's 15 Trillion, 42 Billion, 288 Million, 403 Thousand, 18 dollars, and 43 cents.

But faced with this dangerous national debt, the House could not produce the 2/3rd majority vote necessary to pass HJR 2, the balanced budget constitutional amendment.

The roll call vote was 261 to 165 with 8 not voting.  This was 29 votes short of the number that was needed.

There were 25 Democrats who voted for it:

Jason Altmire (PA)
John Barrow (GA)
Sanford Bishop (GA)
Dan Boren (OK)
Leonard Boswell (IA)
Dennis Cardoza (CA)
Ben Chandler (KY)
Jim Cooper (TN)
Jim Costa (CA)
Jerry Costello (IL)
Henry Cuellar (TX)
Peter DeFazio (OR)
Joe Donnelly (IN)
Kathy Hochul (NY)
Tim Holden (PA)
Steve Inslee (NY)
Ron Kind (WI)
Larry Kissell (NC)
Daniel Lipinski (IL)
Dave Loebsack (IA)
Jim Matheson (UT)
Mike McIntyre (NC)
Collin Peterson (MN)
Mike Ross (AR)
Heath Shuler (NC)

Strangely, 4 Republicans voted against it:

Justin Amash (MI)
David Dreier (CA)
Louie Gohmert (TX)
Paul Ryan (WI)

8 did not vote--6 Democrats and 2 Republicans:

Karen Bass (D-CA)
Ted Deutch (D-FL)
Bob Filner (D-CA)
Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ)
Grace Napolitano (D-CA)
Devin Nunes (R-CA)
John Olver (D-MA)
Ron Paul (R-TX)

The Republicans who voted against the constitutional amendment to prohibit deficit spending said they did not consider HJR 2 to be strong enough--as if a stronger version were possible, now or ever.

These four GOP congressman may have been responding to pressure from Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform, who urged members of Congress to vote against a balanced budget constitutional amendment unless it also required a super majority to increase taxes and limited spending to a percentage of the gross domestic product.

Norquist said that a "weak Balanced Budget Amendment would guarantee tax hikes."

Actually, continued deficit spending allows government programs and services to continue to be financed by borrowing money from China and other foreign countries, with our children and grandchildren eventually having to pay for them, plus interest. 

But a Balanced Budget Constitutional Amendment would force voters to evaluate both the benefits and costs of government now. 

This is the way it works in the 49 states that have balanced budget requirements in their state constitutions. 

In most cases, state legislators are forced to say, in effect, "Well, this is a nice program, but we just can't afford it right now."  It is true that, in a few cases, in order to balance a state budget, both cuts in spending and additional taxes have been necessary.  But that experience is a long, long way from "guaranteeing tax hikes."

For many decades, a constitutional amendment to prohibit deficit spending has been the essence of fiscal responsibility.  Far from being "weak," HJR 2 is the classic version of the Balanced Budget Amendment that has always been an article of faith for conservatism.

To eventually pass it through Congress and send it to the states for ratification, conservatives may have to fight both the liberals and a few on the right who have different value systems.

The Gallup Poll found that voters believe the failure of the Super Committee to come up with a plan for statutory deficit reduction can be blamed on both Republicans and Democrats equally.

55% of all Americans, 60% of Republicans, 61% of independents, and 41% of Democrats said both sides on the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, are equally to blame for the fiasco.

To the extent that blame can be assigned, the six GOP members of the Committee were named as culprits by 24% of the people, versus 15% who thought the six Democrats were at fault.  Among independents, by a margin of 21% to 9%, the Republicans were considered more culpable than the Democrats.

This is probably attributable to the better job the Democrats did in explaining their position on the Sunday morning interview programs on national TV.  The various Democrats were effective in claiming that they were ready to make big cuts in spending, but Republicans adamantly refused to hike the taxes on millionaires by even a little.

The last issue of this newsletter indicated that two sources reported the situation quite differently: Democrats wanted much more spending--not less--and enormous increases in taxes.

By Tuesday, Senator Pat Toomey (PA), a member of the Super Committee, explained what really happened in an interview in the Weekly Standard.  He said the Democrats rejected all efforts at compromise, including his own proposal for $250 Billion in higher taxes, and instead demanded $1 Trillion in tax hikes.

And Speaker of the House John Boehner wrote a short article in USA Today in which he said the GOP put forth a plan for more revenue, but the Democrats wanted a lot more "stimulus" spending and a Trillion dollars in new taxes.

As a result of the Super Committee's failure, $1.2 Trillion in spending cuts, half from defense and half from domestic programs, are scheduled to automatically occur in Fiscal Year 2013.  However, a coalition of neocons and liberals are already working to repeal those cuts before they happen. 

2.  ConservativeHQ.com's Jeffrey Rendall conducted an interesting focus group, consisting of adult members of his family who were gathered together for Thanksgiving, to evaluate the latest Republican presidential debate on national security issues that was telecast on CNN.

Rendall concluded that the debate did not help any of his family members make up their minds who to support. 

He said his homemade focus group demonstrated "why no Republican candidate has yet emerged as a strong frontrunner and also why Mitt Romney is going to have a very difficult time consolidating conservative/Tea Party support behind his candidacy.  It also reveals why Ron Paul continues to fight an uphill battle in his quest to earn conservative (as opposed to strictly libertarian) votes."

Rendall thought that it might be time for Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, and Jon Huntsman to "bow out" of the race.

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