Conservatives Richard Falknor on 15 May 2012
Can Virginia Conservatives Bring Eric Cantor to a Better Mind?
“Over the past few weeks, we’ve observed the Republican form of bipartisanship on display, particularly, with regard to Cantor’s deal to extend the Export-Import Bank. Democrats wanted the extension with a 40% increase in the lending cap, GOP leadership wanted a 13% increase, while conservatives wanted to wind it down. The grand bipartisan deal was finally forged, and the House voted to increase the lending cap last week by…40% over three years. Interestingly enough, this ‘bipartisan’ deal was so palatable for Democrats that it passed without a single Democrat nay vote, even as 93 Republicans opposed it. This is not an isolated jog across the aisle. We are witnessing the same thing with the student loan bill, the postal bailout, the highway bill, appropriations, and the Violence Against Women Act.” –- Daniel Horowitz.
“Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) applauded Cantor’s efforts and successful navigation of bipartisan legislation. . . . ‘I think Eric is much more pragmatic than he’s given credit for, and he’s trying to produce solutions and create records for this Congress that isn’t only opposition to the president but is also a matter of getting things done. When you want to do that, you have to have Democratic cooperation to work,” Cole said. (Underscoring Forum’s.) — Molly K. Hooper
We encourage conservatives to follow closely Daniel Horowitz’ careful tracking of Congressional developments through the Madison Project blog here.
His “GOP Leaders: ‘Let’s Just Get Something Done’” here also led us to Molly Hooper’s post (above) last Sunday in The Hill.
Analyst Horowitz went on to point out –
“Really? You desire to ‘get something done?’
Folks, it is this desire on the part of Republicans to ‘just get something done’ that has saddled us with $15.7 trillion in debt.
It is the largely insouciant attitude on the part of Republicans that has allowed our society to become entirely reliant on government for healthcare and income during old age.
It is the Republican aspiration for bipartisanship that created the Department of Education, along with billions in subsidies for higher education. These subsidies helped increase the cost of college tuition by 439% over the past few decades, while lining the pockets of Big Education and incentivizing them to hike the tuition even more, thereby engendering a further need for subsidization.
It is these ‘do something’ Republicans that have gone along with the Democrat anti-free-market agenda energy policy; from green energy subsidies to mandates for ethanol and the use of crony capitalist products. These policies have helped spike the cost of energy, thereby engendering a further need for subsidization.’”
Keeping Crony Capitalism Alive
The immediate question about Mr. Cantor’s legislative leadership was his support for the reauthorization and expansion of the Export-Import Bank.
Wrote the Wall Street Journal’s “Review & Outlook” last March 3 –
“If you thought Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Solyndra would teach Congress a lesson about politicized credit, think again. The federal Export-Import Bank is up for reauthorization, and the only question seems to be how much more taxpayer money Washington wants to put at risk. If the GOP wants to have a principled battle about fiscal waste and market distortions, this is a good one.
The ExIm Bank—founded in 1934 to support trade with the Soviet Union, but never mind—provides taxpayer-backed loan guarantees and other services to U.S. business, especially big exporters. The bank’s renewable charter expired on September 30 and Congress has kept it alive through temporary spending bills.”
. . . . . . . . . .
“The bigger issue is that the bank by its nature helps some companies at the expense of others. ExIm, for instance, helped its biggest client—Boeing—win airplane contracts in 2011 from Air China, Air India, Cathay Pacific and others. That’s great for Boeing, which accounted for 45.6%, or $40.7 billion, of ExIm’s total exposure in fiscal 2011.
But this subsidy means that foreign airlines can then buy newer aircraft more cheaply than their U.S. competitors. This gives them an advantage in the global air transportation market. In a letter to Congress last month, Delta estimated that ExIm cost the U.S. airline industry up to 7,500 jobs and $684 million a year.”
In the event, last Wednesday only 93 House Republicans voted against this crony-capitalist measure, while no Democrats opposed it. The Republican Study Committee lists here (scroll to p. 7) the many conservative organizations opposing the reauthorization and expansion of the Export-Import Bank.
This afternoon only 19 Republican senators voted against the Ex-Im’s reauthorization.
Eric Cantor and “The Young Guns”
For readers who may have missed the account of the Cantor-affiliated Young Guns Network weighing in on behalf of (now-defeated) Indiana senator Richard Lugar in the Indiana GOP primary, here is an April 28 report from the Weekly Standard’s Michael Warren about that lamentable affair –
“The Young Guns Network, a group affiliated with House Republican majority leader Eric Cantor, is encouraging Democrats in Indiana to vote in the May 8 GOP primary for incumbent senator Dick Lugar. Politico’s Maggie Haberman first reported that the YG Network has been sending mailers to Indiana voters reminding Democrats and independents that they can register to vote in the open primary and encouraging those folks to vote for Lugar and against his conservative challenger, Richard Mourdock. Take a look:”
Last week, RedState chief Erick Erickson declared –
“In what may be the funniest story of the day, Eric Cantor is throwing his own super PAC under the bus.
His denial is implausible once the facts are in full view, but given the blow back he has gotten for his super PAC coming out for a host of squishy candidates who’d spend their time in Washington sucking up to Cantor instead of actually fighting for limited government, Cantor must now urge everyone to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.”
Helping Eric Cantor To Grasp The Conservative Vision
The question for conservatives — particularly in Virginia — is always how to organize effectively to advance their principles.
The Virginia GOP is not a welcoming environment for independent conservatives as opposed to Party cheerleaders, and the Party’s rules and more important its culture do not encourage grass-roots policy-making outside the establishment.
Of course, part of the fault lies with Virginia conservatives themselves. Some obdurately work only what they call “their own issue” — whether guns, families, marriage, taxes, spending, Islamists, Metro malpractice, or school reform — as if Ben Franklin’s warning here only applied to people of some other era –
“We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
Yet Mr. Cantor’s 7th Congressional District here offers a challenge to see whether Virginia conservatives can come together to try to bring the speaker-in-waiting (at least in his reasonable expectation) to a better mind.
The unanswered question: would he then listen to grass-roots Virginia conservatives, or to his legion of K Street campaign donors?
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Readers may wish to refer to our earlier closely related articles Can the Tea Party Movement Now Get the GOP on Course? and Real Perils: Debt Limit, EPA’s GHG Rule, ‘Green’ California.
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