The GOP Can Win the Budget Fight If They Are United on Fiscal Principles

So, dear readers, the Republican Party has no leader or plan. But one group, the tea party, is trying to imprint its fiscally conservative position on the GOP. While many tea partiers are also social conservatives about gay marriage and abortion, it is their drive to balance tbe federal budget and cap and reduce the national debt that is their rallying cry. It is rather surprising that fiscal conservatism should separate the tea party from other Republicans because the GOP has always supported fiscal conservatism and has never abandoned its balanced budget/ reduced national debt / low tax policies. ~~~~~ Look at what senior GOP figures are now saying. Former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele said in a recent interview that the lack of a leader or a strategy is a recipe for a GOP disaster in 2016, "unless somebody with a lot of big sticks takes charge...and I don't see anybody stepping up." And former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas believes the Republicans "lost their fight" and "surrendered" to President Barack Obama during the government shutdown. "I don't know where the Republicans lost their will to fight … You've got to just stand your ground to fight. No retreat, no surrender,". Former Alaska governor and GOP VP candidate Sarah Palin, an influential voice with the tea party rank-and-file, wrote last weekend that "disloyal Republicans are enabling President Barack Obama to march the country toward socialism while denouncing Senators Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and tea party-aligned House members who have been trying to defund Obamacare." Palin thinks that establishment GOP politicians "balked, waved the white flag, and joined the lapdog media in trashing the good guys who fought for us." She challenged the Republican establishment to unite behind conservative grassroots efforts to block Obamacare before it is too late. And former GOP House Majority Leader Tom DeLay told Newsmax TV : "They [the GOP] surrendered before they even got started. I was very proud of the House passing that continuing resolution with defunding Obamacare on it. But if you're going to fight this fight, you've got to fight it to win and that's frankly what Obama did." DeLay blames the shutdown squarely on the President. He's the one that shutdown the government because he wouldn't pass a bill or agree to sign a bill that keeps the government open and negotiate with the Republicans," DeLay said. "He said early on, months ago, that he was not going to negotiate, that he was going to hold his ground, and he didn't care if the government shut down or not, he was going to get his way. He held firm and he wins. That ought to be the lesson here that people understand." DeLay charged Republican lawmakers with not holding out longer. Similarly, former VP Dick Cheney doesn’t consider himself a tea partier, he told CNN : "I’m not a card-carrying member - I don’t think there is a card - but I have respect for what the people are doing....These are Americans. They're loyal, they're patriotic, they're taxpayers. And they're fed up with what they see happening in Washington. I think it's a normal, healthy reaction, and the fact that the party is having to adjust to it is positive." ~~~~~ The common thread is fiscal responsibility. Obamacare is simply the vehicle Republicans of every persuasion are using to attack out-of-control Democrat tax-and-spend programs, with the inderlying theme that these programs are inevitably leading America toward European-style socialism. And even in the unlikely event that the website problems with Obamacare are fixed, others have already arisen, and the GOP can continue to tie Obamacare to fiscal issues - rising premium costs, weak job growth and broader economic worries. Kansas Representative Tim Huelskamp believes Republicans may have "lost the battle but we're going to win the war." The common thread of fiscal conservatism could provide Republicans with an agreed strategy for the coming budget/debt ceiling negotiations that will include broader budget issues like spending levels, deficit reduction and entitlement reforms - all matters over which Democrats and Republicans have long been at odds. The White House says the President is entering the next phase of the debate with an unyielding strategy like that he used in the just-ended crisis. Obama is betting that the anger Americans aimed at Republicans in recent weeks will persuade them to shift course : "Based on the reaction from the American people, I'm pretty sure they're not going to run this play again," the President said. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has rejected the possibility that Democrats might agree to cuts to entitlement programs in exchange for relief from automatic spending cuts. In exchange for entitlement cuts, Reid said, Republicans would have to agree to higher taxes - setting up a familiar ideological clash between the two parties now charged with reaching consensus on a budget. But, Republicans will face intense pressure in their districts not to raise taxes, while Democrats will press Obama not to chip away at the nation's safety net. ~~~~~ If the GOP can agree on a budget and debt ceiling negotiating position that includes reducing funding for Obamacare but that does not make it the non-negotiable item, and if it can build a list of items - tax and entitlement reform principles, tax cuts to match any debt ceiling increase, a balanced budget - then the GOP can succeed because those core GOP principles are strongly supported by a majority of Americans. President Obama's and Senator Reid's principles are supported by only a minority of Americans. So, the GOP must outline a fiscal plan and sell it to an America that is waiting to vote for it. And then stand firm together. The Democrats and Barack Obama will blink first.