There are 241 Republicans in the House of Representatives and 29 of them sit on the Committee of Appropriations.
Two of the 29 -- Reps. Jeff Flake of Arizona and Denny Rehberg of Montana -- are seeking Senate seats and wont have to run for re-election as appropriators in November 2012. This is to their great advantage as it has become apparent early in the 212th Congress that to be an appropriator is to be against the mandate of the 2012 elections.
Most of the GOP appropriators are anonymous outside their districts. You may have heard of the current or past chairmen Hal Rogers of Kentucky or Jerry Lewis of California. Virginias Frank Wolf is a greatly admired champion of religious freedom across the globe and Oklahomas Tom Cole served a disastrous term as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee from 2006-2008.
But most are content to labor away spending spending spending in national obscurity but powerful within the Beltway where their control of trillions of tax dollars makes them very popular indeed.
The appropriators have emerged in 2011 as triple threats. They threaten the country by continuing to vote for massive deficits paid for with a currency that cannot sustain such a flood of hot money.
They threaten the GOP House majority as voters were pledged change by a GOP leadership that over and over again admitted they had lost their way prior to 2006. Rather than change the appropriators first tried to pass a mere $31 billion in cuts for fiscal 2011 and then upped it to $60 billion and used magical thinking to brand that as compliant with the Pledge to Americas promise of at least $100 billion in cuts.
Mostly though the Republican appropriators threaten their own re-elections. In this age of new media instant messaging and Twitter Tea Party activists across the country have already figured out their No. 1 opponents are not Democrats but GOP appropriators.
Expect some to face primary opponents but far worse expect organized Tea Party support for Democratic challengers to GOP appropriators in November 2012. Republican appropriator is going to emerge as a branding tag as popular as Typhoid Mary.
Watch the April 16 rallies of the Tea Parties this year. The Tea Party Patriots will be holding a huge rally in Sacramento Calif. and the rhetoric that day wont be about Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid but about the faithless GOP and especially about the GOP appropriators who are blocking the caucus from taking the steps needed to slash governments size scope and cost.
Dont be surprised if a roll call is read of the Republican appropriators who are obstructing House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin from pushing forward serious spending cuts and entitlement reform.
This past week the appropriators went public attacking the deficit hawks and using anonymous staffers to savage conservative budget-cutters inside and outside of the Congress. That petulant move alone cost the NRCC thousands and thousands of dollars as it became obvious that large numbers of GOP appropriators are no more conservative than your average Democrat on matters of spending and the partys contributors arent in the habit of sending help to the other side.
Far better to send dollars to the Republican governors via the RGA.org than to the spendthrifts in the GOP House caucus.
About two dozen Republican appropriators stand between the House GOP and serious spending reform. If they cannot be moved the Tea Party and conservative activists will seek to remove them. The days of campaigning as a conservative and spending like a Democrat are done and if the appropriators dont change voters sick with worry about a government addicted to trillion-dollar deficits will change them.
Hugh Hewitt is a law professor at Chapman University Law School and a nationally syndicated radio talk show host who blogs daily at HughHewitt.com.
There are 241 Republicans in the House of Representatives and 29 of them sit on the Committee of Appropriations.
Two of the 29 -- Reps. Jeff Flake of Arizona and Denny Rehberg of Montana -- are seeking Senate seats and wont have to run for re-election as appropriators in November 2012. This is to their great advantage as it has become apparent early in the 212th Congress that to be an appropriator is to be against the mandate of the 2012 elections.
Most of the GOP appropriators are anonymous outside their districts. You may have heard of the current or past chairmen Hal Rogers of Kentucky or Jerry Lewis of California. Virginias Frank Wolf is a greatly admired champion of religious freedom across the globe and Oklahomas Tom Cole served a disastrous term as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee from 2006-2008.
But most are content to labor away spending spending spending in national obscurity but powerful within the Beltway where their control of trillions of tax dollars makes them very popular indeed.
The appropriators have emerged in 2011 as triple threats. They threaten the country by continuing to vote for massive deficits paid for with a currency that cannot sustain such a flood of hot money.
They threaten the GOP House majority as voters were pledged change by a GOP leadership that over and over again admitted they had lost their way prior to 2006. Rather than change the appropriators first tried to pass a mere $31 billion in cuts for fiscal 2011 and then upped it to $60 billion and used magical thinking to brand that as compliant with the Pledge to Americas promise of at least $100 billion in cuts.
Mostly though the Republican appropriators threaten their own re-elections. In this age of new media instant messaging and Twitter Tea Party activists across the country have already figured out their No. 1 opponents are not Democrats but GOP appropriators.
Expect some to face primary opponents but far worse expect organized Tea Party support for Democratic challengers to GOP appropriators in November 2012. Republican appropriator is going to emerge as a branding tag as popular as Typhoid Mary.
Watch the April 16 rallies of the Tea Parties this year. The Tea Party Patriots will be holding a huge rally in Sacramento Calif. and the rhetoric that day wont be about Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid but about the faithless GOP and especially about the GOP appropriators who are blocking the caucus from taking the steps needed to slash governments size scope and cost.
Dont be surprised if a roll call is read of the Republican appropriators who are obstructing House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin from pushing forward serious spending cuts and entitlement reform.
This past week the appropriators went public attacking the deficit hawks and using anonymous staffers to savage conservative budget-cutters inside and outside of the Congress. That petulant move alone cost the NRCC thousands and thousands of dollars as it became obvious that large numbers of GOP appropriators are no more conservative than your average Democrat on matters of spending and the partys contributors arent in the habit of sending help to the other side.
Far better to send dollars to the Republican governors via the RGA.org than to the spendthrifts in the GOP House caucus.
About two dozen Republican appropriators stand between the House GOP and serious spending reform. If they cannot be moved the Tea Party and conservative activists will seek to remove them. The days of campaigning as a conservative and spending like a Democrat are done and if the appropriators dont change voters sick with worry about a government addicted to trillion-dollar deficits will change them.
Hugh Hewitt is a law professor at Chapman University Law School and a nationally syndicated radio talk show host who blogs daily at HughHewitt.com.
