Republicans Split On Rest Of Obama’s Agenda
Mar 23, 2010 6 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
The Obama administration’s passage of a sweeping health-care revamp has scrambled Republicans’ strategic calculations on Capitol Hill, forcing the GOP to decide whether to maintain its largely unified opposition to Democratic proposals.
On key pieces of legislation, including a revamp of financial rules and a rewrite of the No Child Left Behind education law, some Republicans are either explicitly on board or could soon be so. For most of the Obama presidency, the party has moved in lock-step opposition, which has helped coalesce a revitalized conservative movement in recent months.
But some Republicans feel these two issues in particular—education and financial regulation—are harder to oppose for political reasons.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who has consulted closely with Republicans, has produced a plan to maintain most of the standards in former President George W. Bush’s education law, while giving school boards and the nation’s nearly 100,000 public schools more flexibility in achieving them.
Rep. John Kline of Minnesota, the top Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee, said that while he has some concerns about Mr. Obama’s plan, “I’m still very supportive.”
On an overhaul of financial regulations, which is currently before the Senate, Democrats and even some senior Senate Republican aides think a handful of Republicans will vote for legislation, which could pass the Senate by Memorial Day. Republicans have faced challenges in trying to present a unified position on the bill, given the dicey political prospect of appearing to side with big Wall Street banks.
Following the enactment of the health-care revamp, some Republicans have said the party should have sought to negotiate, instead of offering blanket opposition, to win concessions. Others nonetheless say Democrats made a mistake in forcing through the health bill, and that the backlash against it will ultimately help the GOP in the November elections.
“If they want to drive these bills to the far left, the ideological left, then there will be less cooperation and more confrontation,” said Sen. John Thune (R., S.D.). “If they come to the middle on some of this stuff, then I think there is obviously room for cooperation.”
Some Democrats disputed the idea that the health-care battle would prompt a backlash among Senate Republicans. “I think the tone is getting a little better, because we’re at the endgame” of the health debate, said Sen. Max Baucus (D., Mont.).
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of the Democrats’ most likely potential allies on a range of legislation, said in an interview he would no longer work with the majority party on an immigration overhaul. He said because of the Democrats’ tactics in passing the package, the “well has been poisoned.”
Mr. Graham also has been working with Democrats on climate change, and that cooperation, too, appears in doubt. “Climate and energy are another heavy lift. We’ll see,” Mr. Graham said. “The consequences of health care being done this way are enormous to the body.” Mr. Graham’s initiatives would probably not have received significant Congressional attention this year in any case, but his posture signals one potential route for the party.
The revamp of financial rules is perhaps the key area where Republicans could splinter over their approach. Sen. Richard Shelby (R., Ala.) and Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) have separately negotiated with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.), sending mixed signals to other Republicans.
Efforts by GOP leaders to make a unified statement with amendments or an alternative bill collapsed over the weekend. Republicans had discussed for weeks offering an alternative bill, but they couldn’t agree what should be in it, people familiar with the matter said.
Republicans aides met until 3 a.m. one day last week, plowing through Mr. Dodd’s 1,336-page bill, congressional aides said. Mr. Shelby tried to win a commitment from the other nine Republicans on the Banking Committee not to offer amendments, but he couldn’t secure an agreement from all the members, the people familiar said.
That led to a flurry of Republican amendments right at the deadline Friday. Democrats seized on contradictions between the Republican amendments; some, for example, added power to the Federal Reserve and others stripped it away. On Sunday, Mr. Corker, the final holdout, agreed not to introduce any of his nearly 100 amendments.
Mr. Dodd, trying to take advantage of the breaks within the party, is expected to court centrist Republicans such as Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine and George Voinovich of Ohio.
