As the various factions on Capitol Hill debate the proposed debt ceiling deal, I can’t help but question how much the Republican Party’s conservative wing has accomplished in this process.
I understand that not every conservative feels the same way, especially not every Freedom Caucus member. And I appreciate it. They are elected, whereas I am not; they have constituencies to worry about, whereas I no longer do. They must be re-elected, whereas I simply observe and comment.
But that distance observing this as an informed citizen rather than someone with a voting card — gives me a new perspective. And from where I am, we are watching a miracle – possibly a modest one, but a miracle nonetheless.
This is because there will be specific spending cuts in this agreement. By any standard, they are not significant decreases. But there are some. There are also some policy changes – not many, but some. There has even been some COVID money recovered not as much as some Republicans would have preferred, but some.
It’s difficult to put into words how countercultural that list is. After all, Washington despises spending cuts. It dislikes conservative policy shifts.
And it rarely, if ever, recovers money that it has already spent. To put things in context, there is still money left over from Hurricane Katrina. Please give that some thought.
As a result, I’ll take “some” little victories. “Some” is much better than what conservatives received the past two times the debt ceiling was increased. This includes rises that occurred while a Republican was in the White House. It increased while Republicans controlled the House, Senate, and White House.
That year, President Trump secured a compromise that raised the debt ceiling while making no cuts to spending. It was so bad that 90 House Republicans opposed it.
While Donald Trump was in the White House, the GOP’s fiscally conservative wing lost some of its focus. That’s understandable: it’s challenging to be a fiscally conservative Republican when your party’s leader is condemning you for wanting to spend less.
Trump even mocked fiscal conservatives after he and Nancy Pelosi reached a debt-ceiling agreement, tweeting, “Republicans, sorry, but I’ve been hearing about Repeal & Replace for 7 years, didn’t happen!”
Republicans, sorry, but I’ve been hearing about Repeal & Replace for 7 years, didn’t happen! Even worse, the Senate Filibuster Rule will….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 8, 2017
That blunder cost them the moral high ground on a topic where Republicans should have dominated.
It will be a positive development if the current debt-ceiling battle represents a return to the GOP’s fiscally conservative roots. Indeed, later is preferable to never.
In 2017, left-wing media outlets within the Beltway were ecstatic, with headlines like “How Democrats Rolled Trump on the Debt Ceiling.” And Democrats on Capitol Hill were trying hard not to rejoice for fear of jeopardizing the accord.
Republicans didn’t roll anyone here, and there’s not much to celebrate. However, fiscal conservatives received something that was beyond everyone’s expectations. That may not be enough to persuade some Republicans to support the package. But, for average, fiscally conservative individuals, it is a step in the right direction.
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