Seize the Day, Control the Agenda
By Charles Krauthammer
WashingtonPost.com
(Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg)
Memo to the GOP. You had a
great night on Tuesday. But remember: You didn’t
win it. The Democrats lost it.
This is not to say that you didn’t show discipline
in making the election a referendum on six years of
Barack Obama. You exercised adult supervision over
the choice of candidates. You didn’t allow yourself
to go down the byways of gender and other identity
politics.
It showed: a gain of
probably nine Senate seats, the largest
Republican House majority in more than 80 years, and
astonishing gubernatorial victories, including
Massachusetts, Maryland and Illinois, the bluest of
the blue, giving lie to the
Democrats’ excuse that they lost because the
game was played on Republican turf.
The defeat — “a massacre,”
the Economist called it — marks the final
collapse of Obamaism, a species of left liberalism
so intrusive, so incompetently executed and
ultimately so unpopular that it will be seen as a
parenthesis in American political history.
Notwithstanding Obama’s awkward denials at his
next-day news conference, he himself defined the
election when
he insisted just last month that “these [i.e.
his] policies are on the ballot — every single one
of them.”
They were, and America spoke. But it was a negative
judgment, not an endorsement of the GOP. The prize
for winning is nothing but the opportunity for
Republicans to show that they can govern — the
opportunity to seize the national agenda.
Five weeks ago,
I suggested a series of initiatives that would
be like the 1994 “Contract with America” but this
time post facto. It’s not rocket science. Mitch
McConnell, the incoming Senate majority leader, and
Speaker John Boehner are
already at work producing such an agenda.
It needs to be urgent, determined and relentless.
Say, a bill a week for the first 10 weeks. Start
with obvious measures with significant Democratic
support, like the Keystone XL pipeline.
Like fast-track trade negotiation authority that
Harry Reid killed and that Obama, like all
presidents, wants. Republicans should propose and
pass it, thereby giving Obama a victory and
demonstrating both bipartisanship and magnanimity
(as well as economic good sense).
Then a simple, targeted bill to repatriate the $2
trillion of assets being held by U.S. corporations
overseas, a bill to authorize and expedite the
export of liquid natural gas and crude oil (the
latter banned by an
obsolete 1975 law) and a strong border security
bill.
As for Obamacare, a symbolic abolition that Obama
will immediately veto is less important than
multiple rapid-fire measures to kill it with a
thousand cuts. Repeal of the medical device tax.
Repeal of the individual mandate. Repeal of the
employer mandate. Repeal of the coverage mandate,
thereby reinstating
Obama’s broken promise that “If you like your
health-care plan, you can keep it.” And repeal the
federal bailout for insurers on the Obamacare
exchanges.
If Obama issues vetoes, fine. Let the Democrats
defend them for the next two years.
Then go big and go positive: a sweeping reform of
the tax system, both corporate and individual,
abolishing loopholes and lowering rates, like the
historic Reagan-O’Neill 1986 reform or Obama’s own
abandoned Simpson-Bowles commission. And go large:
Invite the other side into immediate negotiations
with the aim of producing a tax bill by spring.
How will Obama react? My guess — with the petulance
and denial he displayed in his post-election news
conference. Moreover, he will try to regain control
of the national agenda with
executive amnesty for illegal immigrants.
Final memo to the GOP: That would be
naked impeachment bait. Don’t take it. Use the
power of the purse to defund it. Pledge immediate
repeal if Republicans take the White House in 2017.
Denounce it as both unconstitutional and bad policy.
But don’t let it overwhelm and overtake the GOP
agenda. That’s exactly what Obama wants. It is his
only way to regain the initiative.
The 2014 election has given the GOP the rare
opportunity to retroactively redeem its brand. The
conventional perception, incessantly repeated by
Democrats and the media, is that Washington
dysfunction is the work of the Party of No. Expose
the real agent of do-nothing. Show that, when Harry
Reid can no longer consign House-passed legislation
to oblivion, Congress can actually work.
Pass legislation. When Obama signs, you’ve shown
seriousness and the ability to govern. When he
vetoes, you’ve clarified the differences between
party philosophies and prepared the ground for 2016.
Tuesday’s victory was big. But it did nothing more
than level the playing field and give you a shot.
Take it.