The biggest conservative crime the “Freedom Caucus” committed when they joined the House Democrats in killing the American Health Care Act (aka, the repeal of Obamacare and the block-granting of Medicaid) was not their intention to vote against a $1 trillion dollar tax cut. Nor was their greatest betrayal the refusal to cut spending by $1.2 trillion over the next decade. No, the real lasting damage was teaching Republican appropriators that they too could whip up a gang of 25 “Republicans” and hook up with Democrats to stop any tax cut or spending reform in the future.
The standing joke in Washington was — until the recent banning of earmarks — that there are three parties in Congress: Republicans, Democrats, and Appropriators.
In the past few years, party loyalty and a sense of shame has kept those appropriators from betraying Reagan Republican principles and party discipline.
But the Freedom Caucus has taught those Republican appropriators who still lust after the good old days of earmarks that there are no longer any serious constraints on their — to date — sublimated lust for other people’s tax dollars.
Oh yeah, the “conservatives” will be the first to whine when the video “Republican Appropriators Gone Wild” goes viral. They will call them RINOs and point out that we cannot have spending discipline if the GOP cannot command 218 members to fight and work together against spending.
But the appropriators will just laugh at them and mock them explaining correctly that they learned this bad behavior from the Freedom Caucus.
When one gang is let loose in a city to serve its own interests at the expense of everyone else, a second and third gang are sure to follow. (Al Capone, Bugs Moran …)
Grover Norquist (@GroverNorquist) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is the president of Americans for Tax Reform.
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