It is no secret that the Tea Party was not happy with the Budget Control Act of 2011 in its final form. As the newcomers to the process, elected on a mandate to make substantial cuts, Tea Party representatives were understandably disappointed with the relative scarcity of the cost savings, only $21 billion in FY 2012. Yet turning the ship of state is no easy matter, and the Tea Party should start thinking about what their next move should be. I have two suggestions.
First, stop worrying about the “super committee,” officially the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, and whether it will end up reporting a bill with tax increases. The House will not pass a tax increase, so focus on getting staunch conservative members onto the committee, filling it with members who are focused on rooting out government waste and combating the rampant overspending in Washington. Speaker Boehner and Leader McConnell will both be looking for ways to reach out to the Tea Partiers that felt they were slighted during the final days of the debt deal debate – and what better way to do that than putting some of the most conservative members onto the Joint Committee. With 6 staunch conservative members from strong districts on the committee, the chance of a tax increase being pushed into the deal gets significantly less.
Second, implement serious transparency reform to the super committee’s operations, opening their deliberations to the public. The public reacted with disdain and disgust to the wrangling of legislators during the latest debate, in large part because they were not a party to the discussion. Bring them in, shine the light onto the discussion and let the public see exactly what our plans are. Members who stand on their principles will not shy away from making the same bold statements they have been as they look for ways to cut $1.2 – 1.5 trillion, especially as most members are already on the record supporting social security reform, medicare cuts, and other politically dangerous topics. Including the public in the deliberations is a great way to draw the contrast between Democrats, who have no real spending cuts (outside gutting national defense), and Republicans who do. Plus Democrats will have to put their tax increase plans on the table in front of the taxpayers, something they have been historically loath to do. In the tax and spend battle, Republicans are clearly winning. Let’s not leave the public out in the cold feeling disgusted, let’s bring them in, show them the dirty process, the insider wrangling, etc. And when they take our side, lets take Democrats to the cleaners in 2012.
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