Here is the roster of the House Appropriations Committee. It’s pretty up to date, but the second most senior Republican on the committee, Bill Young of Florida, died last week. If you scan the names of the Republicans on the committee, you’ll notice some people you have probably seen quoted in articles saying somewhat reasonable things about the sequester, the government shutdown, the debt ceiling, compromise, the need for revenues and other fiscal and budgetary issues. I’m thinking in particular of chairman Hal Rogers, Deputy Majority Whip Tom Cole, Pennsylvania moderate Charlie Dent, Northern Virginia-based Frank Wolf, and even Arkansan Rep. Steve Womack.
What you need to realize is that these gentlemen are supposed to be sitting on the most powerful and consequential committee in the Congress, and they’ve been left to do virtually nothing because decision-making about how to set our national priorities has been taken away from them by the sequester. Everyone else can be walking around in some ideological cloud, but these gentlemen are responsible for actually running the federal government. With them, money talks and bullshit walks. Even when they try to pass spending bills to replace the sequester, they can’t succeed because the Ryan Budget is so absurdly austere. They may not want to take the heat for violating the Norquist Pledge, but they’re much more sick of not being able to do their jobs. They know that they can’t get a Republican majority to enact the Ryan agenda, and they know that the Senate and the administration would never agree to it even if they were successful. They may not want to admit it, but they actually do know that the only functional majority in the House is a bipartisan majority that is dominated by Democrats.
That’s why Charlie Dent just said, “Bipartisan coalitions are going to have to be assembled in order to get these [spending bills] done.” It’s why Tom Cole just said, “I think both sides would like to deal with the sequester. And we’re willing to put more revenue on the table to do that…” Tom Cole knows that he’ll never get 218 Republican votes for more revenue, but that’s not what he’s suggesting. He, like Dent, knows that the only way to govern now is with a Democrat-majority coalition. The man represents Oklahoma. He is familiar with Obama Derangement Syndrome. But it doesn’t matter to him because the ODS Caucus can’t get anything accomplished. They can shut the government down, but they can’t fund it.
And, guess what? The GOP is coming to the end of the line with being able to spin the sequester as a workable solution to our budget problems. The military’s service chiefs have already testified before Congress, and no one can deny that next year’s scheduled sequester cuts are too quick and too steep to be politically viable. I’m all for massive cuts in defense, but only as part of a coherent and well-planned strategy that is consistent with the strategic guidance laid out by the administration. And it’s not just defense; it’s everything. No Republican House majority can pass a transportation bill or a farm bill. If the farm bill doesn’t get done, we could be looking a $12 gallons of milk next year.
So, the reality is, that the House Republican majority doesn’t really exist. It’s a mirage. They can’t keep going the way they have been going. Their cohesiveness will not hold because it cannot hold. There are things that absolutely have to be done that the House majority in incapable of doing.
And those things will get done. All I ask is that the House moderates and the House appropriators come to their senses sooner rather than later and realize that, unless and until one of their own rank-and-file steps up to fill the void, the only viable leader in the House is Nancy Pelosi.
