Those happy days for Democrats and the media—when House Republicans were angry with each other and divided—are over. The archconservatives of the House Freedom Caucus are mostly on board with Speaker Paul Ryan. So is Heritage Action, the serious-minded group that wants the most conservative ideas to be paramount in Congress.
To the extent there’s comity, though, it’s fragile. Differences among House Republicans—more tactical than ideological—haven’t magically vanished. Disagreements are as likely as ever on the budget blueprint that may be voted on as early as next month. And Idaho’s Raul Labrador, a Freedom Caucus stalwart, told reporters, “The honeymoon is over” with Ryan.
That’s true, but it’s been replaced by a close relationship between Ryan and the conservatives who opposed his predecessor, John Boehner. Heritage Action officials are in regular contact with Ryan and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. It’s not nirvana, but it’s not a combative relationship either.
“I’m a big believer that ideas can unify people, and I think that a House which is using its majority to advance a bold conservative agenda will find much more harmony than we’ve had in past years,” says Michael Needham, CEO of Heritage Action. “Ryan’s focus on policy has certainly been a contrast with the visionless agenda Boehner pushed, and I’ve had a lot of members comment on that to me in the last few months.”
Ryan has brought Republicans together around four ideas to pursue this year: tax reform, welfare reform, health care reform, and defense spending. He’s not demanding they have top priority. Ryan has promised issues will emerge “bottom up” in the House. And his urging assures their emergence.
House Republicans “do not see politics as a popularity contest,” he said in his first major speech as speaker, delivered in December at the Library of Congress. “We do not care for the tricks of the trade. What we love are ideas.”
Republicans generally agree on some version of reform of taxes, welfare, and health care, and on increasing defense spending. They—and Ryan especially—want positive solutions to problems. The four constitute a popular agenda that doesn’t require tax hikes or higher spending except for defense. Ryan left out immigration reform intentionally. It divides the party.
“If we want to save the country, then we need a mandate from the people,” Ryan said in his speech. “And if we want a mandate, then we need to offer ideas. . . . And that’s where House Republicans come in. So, our number-one goal [for 2016] is to put together a complete alternative to the left’s agenda. . . . We owe it to the country to offer a bold, pro-growth agenda. And that is what we are going to do.”
There’s little chance of enacting any of the agenda this year, not with Barack Obama in the White House and Senate Democrats inclined to filibuster anything they frown on. But Ryan’s hope—and that of conservative leaders such as Heritage Foundation president Jim DeMint—is that action on the four issues will become the dominant story in the House. If it does, that’s bound to create a more favorable political environment for Republicans.
There are two other potential benefits. One is that the House effort will pressure the Senate to follow suit. And if, say, welfare reform passes the House, that would generate even more pressure on the Senate. The other is to tee up a conservative agenda for the next president, assuming a Republican is elected.
For Ryan, the “first item is creating jobs and raising wages,” he said at the Library of Congress. That means tax reform. “The only way to fix our broken tax code is to simplify, simplify, simplify. Close all those loopholes and use that money to cut tax rates for everybody.”
Getting rid of loopholes won’t be easy. They’ve been accumulating since 1986, when the tax code was last reformed. “I know people like many of these loopholes and they have their reasons,” Ryan said. “But there are so many of them that now the tax code is like a to-do list—Washington’s to-do list.”
Ryan says Kevin Brady, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, is ready to roll on tax reform. “We want a tax code that rewards good work instead of good connections,” Ryan said in his speech. “When people know they will keep more of their hard-earned money, they will work more, save more, invest more, and create more jobs for all of us.”
Jim Jordan, who heads the Freedom Caucus, is as eager as Ryan to reform welfare, with two goals in mind. One is to require able-bodied recipients, particularly if they are single, to work. The other, Ryan said, is “to make sure it always pays to work.” Those on welfare won’t take a job if they face “80, 90 cents on the dollar in higher taxes and lower benefits.”
On health care, “there are many things to do, but most urgent is to repeal and replace Obamacare,” according to Ryan. How does he know it has failed? “You notice we don’t talk about lowering premiums anymore. We’re supposed to be happy if they don’t go up by double digits.”
For all their cooperation with Ryan, Heritage Action and the Freedom Caucus haven’t been co-opted by the House GOP hierarchy. At last week’s Republican retreat, Heritage Action gave conservative members a “Congressional Boarding Pass” with ideas to emphasize. On the Obama agenda, one said, because of the president’s “disregard” of Congress, the Senate should refuse to confirm his nominees except for national security posts. Good idea.
The Freedom Caucus, meanwhile, is creating a “Contract with America II.” It’s not a Ryan product. A draft version lists 10 bills Republicans will submit in the first 100 days of the new Congress. Number five is “Safeguard Our Constitution.” It would require every bill “to identify the constitutional provision that grants Congress the power to do what the bill proposes.” Another good idea.
The media will find Ryan-friendly conservatives hard to accept, much less cover fairly. In early January, Michelle Cottle wrote this in the Atlantic: “So for all the anxiety and anticipation and bluster, for the Freedom Caucus, this year could wind up being somewhat Shakespearean, full of sound and fury signifying . . . not a helluva lot.” I wouldn’t count on that.
Fred Barnes is an executive editor at The Weekly Standard.
