Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

SUN EDITORIAL:

Going the wrong way

Republicans are letting the Tea Party set the budget debate in Congress

Tea Party activists rallied Thursday on Capitol Hill, demanding that Congress make drastic cuts in the federal budget. The rally came as budget negotiations continued between Republican House Speaker John Boehner, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the White House.

On Wednesday, Vice President Joe Biden said there had been an agreement to make $33 billion in budget cuts for the current fiscal year, which ends in September. That’s a significant compromise for Democrats, but Republicans want nearly double that.

Boehner denied that there was a deal, saying, “nothing will be agreed to until everything is agreed to.” But he didn’t specifically rule out compromise, noting that Republicans only control the House of Representatives.

But that type of reasoning doesn’t work for the Tea Party. The fact that Boehner is even negotiating with Democrats has infuriated many Tea Party activists. After Republicans benefited from the Tea Party in last year’s election, activists want the GOP to do their bidding, take a hard-line stance and deliver massive budget cuts. Those who don’t meet their demands are being threatened politically — starting with the speaker.

“Boehner must go,” Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips wrote to supporters this week. “The Tea Party must unite and make sure Boehner is replaced in the next election.”

Beyond any electoral threats, Boehner has his hands full with a caucus that has been heavily influenced by the Tea Party, and that influence appears to be creating a division in the caucus between those who are willing to compromise and those who won’t.

And it’s not just the rank-and-file members. This week Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the No. 2 Republican in the House, distanced himself from talk of a compromise. “Time is up here,” Cantor said, calling any spending measure that doesn’t include an agreement to make major cuts “unacceptable.”

A failure to come to an agreement by next Friday will lead to a government shutdown. Ironically, the Tea Party protesters gathered the same day that freshman House Republicans met behind closed doors with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, whose fight in the 1990s with then-President Bill Clinton led to two government shutdowns.

A government shutdown might earn the praise of the Tea Party, but it would be harmful to the nation. In a telephone interview Wednesday with the Las Vegas Sun’s editorial board, Reid called for House leadership to act “for the good of the country.”

“The question is will the Republican leadership in the House capitulate to the Tea Party,” Reid said, labeling the massive cuts the Republicans want to make as “job-killing.”

Unfortunately, many Republicans don’t see that and ridiculously maintain that the Tea Party is in the mainstream. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., went so far Thursday as to call the Tea Party’s demands “reasonable.”

People expect budget cuts, but they don’t want government services shut down or gutted, as the Tea Party does. In fact, a poll released by CNN this week reports that less than a third of Americans have a favorable view of the Tea Party. It’s no wonder why. The Tea Party has tried to bully Congress into taking actions that don’t line up with most Americans’ beliefs.

Americans want to see government work. For that to happen, Republicans will have to compromise and work for the good of everyone, not just the Tea Party.

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