As we forge ahead to the new legislative session, it is important that we internalize the lessons of the dismal failures from last session.

Most of the dominant and sundry legislative battles last year can be explicated by the inane cycle of Republican capitulation.  It goes something like this:

Democrats propose some odious and profligate legislative idea or budget bill.  Conservatives advocate that we uproot the entire premise of the destructive legislation by drawing a line in the sand on the principles that got us elected.  Republican leaders eschew conservative principles and acquiesce to the premise that the Democrat legislation or budget is a priority too big to fail.  They telegraph the message to Democrats that they will never let the budget bill or stimulus proposal fail, but promise to make them pay for it with reforms or other spending offsets.

Inevitably, Democrats unite against the GOP leadership proposal, and we are left with the GOP caving on the spending without the offsets.  Then they unequivocally swear to stick it to the Democrats during the next budget battle by finally utilizing their leverage.  Repeat and rinse and needed.  As the saying goes, the rest is history.

The overarching lesson is that once you emphatically communicate to Democrats that you will ultimately pass their legislation or you will never take the budget fight or the debt fight to the brink, you have already lost the battle.  You can garrulously demand concessions and spending offsets until you are blue in the face, but Democrats will wait you out until the deadline.  Once you give away your leverage, there is nothing left to fight for.

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As we forge ahead to the new legislative session, it is important that we internalize the lessons of the dismal failures from last session.

Most of the dominant and sundry legislative battles last year can be explicated by the inane cycle of Republican capitulation.  It goes something like this:

Democrats propose some odious and profligate legislative idea or budget bill.  Conservatives advocate that we uproot the entire premise of the destructive legislation by drawing a line in the sand on the principles that got us elected.  Republican leaders eschew conservative principles and acquiesce to the premise that the Democrat legislation or budget is a priority too big to fail.  They telegraph the message to Democrats that they will never let the budget bill or stimulus proposal fail, but promise to make them pay for it with reforms or other spending offsets.

Inevitably, Democrats unite against the GOP leadership proposal, and we are left with the GOP caving on the spending without the offsets.  Then they unequivocally swear to stick it to the Democrats during the next budget battle by finally utilizing their leverage.  Repeat and rinse and needed.  As the saying goes, the rest is history.

The overarching lesson is that once you emphatically communicate to Democrats that you will ultimately pass their legislation or you will never take the budget fight or the debt fight to the brink, you have already lost the battle.  You can garrulously demand concessions and spending offsets until you are blue in the face, but Democrats will wait you out until the deadline.  Once you give away your leverage, there is nothing left to fight for.

Read More →