WSJ: Republican Party Masochists in Congress

GOP division and disarray on Capitol Hill bode ill for the next two years.

By The Editorial Board, Updated Dec. 17, 2022 – Excerpts:

… Democrats in the House minority have completed a seamless change of House leadership to a younger generation with little internal dissent. But Republicans, who ostensibly won the majority, can’t even find the votes to elect a GOP Speaker, much less agree on budget strategy or much of anything else.

Meanwhile, across the Capitol, Senate Republicans are doing Mr. McCarthy no favors by joining Democrats to pass a giant omnibus spending bill for fiscal 2023. Most House Republicans prefer a continuing resolution to fund the government only into early next year, when Republicans will have more leverage as the House majority.

But Mitch McConnell and the Senate GOP don’t trust that Mr. McCarthy can deliver in January, or so they say. They won’t even give him the chance. The more likely explanation is that Senate Republicans also want one more spending blowout this Congress as much as Senate Democrats do. Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby is the ranking Republican on the Appropriations Committee, and he seems intent on going out with big spending bang.

The result could be a spending bill nearly as large as the $1.9 trillion March 2021 Covid relief bill that triggered inflation. The omnibus bill would lock in baseline domestic non-defense spending far above levels that would have been expected in 2023 given normal increases pre-Covid. Defense would also get a spending boost, but the omnibus would set the budget through next September.

The new House GOP majority wouldn’t be able to use their power of the purse to influence priorities until fiscal 2024. The higher spending, and thus larger budget deficits, would also make pro-growth tax cuts that much more difficult to sell politically. If there’s a recession, Democrats will propose even more spending, and Republicans will propose what?

Democrats run the House until January, so Mr. McCarthy can’t stop an omnibus bill. But the lack of coordination between the House and Senate GOP bodes ill for any coherent agenda over the next two years. Senate Democrats and the White House will have a united front and could roll over a divided GOP.

The GOP dysfunction since Election Day won’t matter if it teaches Republicans that their only chance of influencing policy is to stay united. On the evidence so far, however, Republicans are the gang that couldn’t shoot straight—except at one another.

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Again… “Democrats will propose even more spending, and Republicans will propose what?

The lack of any type of master plan by Washington Republicans to get America back on course is astonishing. There is no strategy to restore economic liberty and free market dynamics. No strategy to reduce the entitlements crisis and re-incentivize work. No plan to dial back inflation and revitalize long-term economic growth. No politically feasible plan to restore financial security for American Families and eliminate federal budget deficits.

America’s Main Street Republicans do have a plan:

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$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2023 (5470 downloads)