Top conservative leaders are urging Congress to fight for conservative principles rather than engage in standard D.C. deal-making.
More than 50 longtime conservative leaders signed a “Citizens’ Mandate” document urging Republican leaders to follow what they argue is a clear voter message from the 2014 election to steer clear of cutting deals with President Obama or centrists and stop what they view as the “fundamental transformation of America.”
“The November 2014 election was a repudiation of the complicity of the United States Congress in President Obama’s dramatic and unconstitutional expansion of government,” they leaders wrote in the document, which they released Thursday.
Signers include such notable conservatives as Ken Blackwell, Richard Viguerie, Phyllis Schafly, Frank Gaffney, Dr. James Dobson, Gary Bauer, Rick Manning and David Bozell.
The seven-page document exhorts House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., along with other Republicans, to end executive branch “overreach,” restore the constitutional balance among the three branches of government, bring an end to Obamacare and stop the president’s executive action on immigration.
They also urge the GOP to hold the executive branch accountable for Obama’s “myriad abuses of power” and its “national security failures both foreign and domestic,” and more broadly “put the interests of the United States of America first among nations.”
The document follows an unsuccessful rebellion among conservatives to try to oust Boehner from power. On the first day of the new Congress, with a strengthened Republican majority, 24 members of the House Republican conference voted against Boehner for speaker and one voted present.
“The contentious vote for speaker … reflected the frustration of voters nationwide, who did not have confidence that last year’s Republican House leadership would have the courage to carry out the voters’ mandate,” the document notes.
The “Citizens’ Mandate” also cites a poll conducted in late December by pollster Pat Caddell that conservatives say confirms a growing rift between voters and Republican leaders in the House and Senate.
Rick Manning, president of Americans for Limited Government, said conservatives are infuriated over GOP leaders’ decision last year to pass a massive spending bill, known as the cromnibus, instead of returning to regular order and considering appropriations separately.
“After the debacle of the cromnibus, it is imperative that the 114th Congress be focused like a laser beam on stopping President Obama’s fundamental transformation of America. The Citizen’s Mandate lays out this vision as well as some practical steps they can take to restore congressional prerogatives,” Manning said.
