GOP Strategy Memo for Retaking Congress

The man who will be House Minority Leader going into the 110th
congressional session, John Boehner, sent a memo to GOP reps. outlining
his plan to take back the majority in the House. Political Insider
has the full memo. The poster, Helvidius, points to what he feels is
the key point, "If we want to reclaim our majority, we first have to
reclaim our mantle as the party of hope, freedom and reform ... the
party of Reagan and Lincoln. As our Democratic counterparts may
discover the hard way, having a majority is of limited value if you
don't have a vision and a plan for using it."

I'd point out that the Republicans had a plan, but it was a really
bad one -- support the war, scare the living bejesus out of everyone
with terrorism, and hold the majority for the sole purpose of holding
the majority. And let's not compare Reagan and Lincoln anymore, OK?

What
I found funny was Boehner's reference to 1994's 'Contract with
America.' "[W]hether you were here in 1994 or not, virtually all of us
agree that what made the Contract historic and effective 12 years ago
was its broad appeal," Boehner writes. "The Contract was about reform.
It emphasized the things that unite all Republicans, but it went beyond
that; it spoke to the hopes and values of most Americans."
Unfortunately, there was a lot of stuff in the contract that the GOP
didn't deliver on -- terms limits and a balanced budget amendment come
to mind. And the contract didn't really make much difference in the election. Exit polling showed that only 30% of voters had heard of it and, of those who had, it was almost as much of a disincentive to vote GOP as it was an incentive. Voters were either 7% more likely to vote GOP because of it or 6% less likely for the same reason. The contract was a wash.

Predictably,
a lot of what Boehner has to say is hypocritical. It's hard for a GOP
leader to complain about fiscal irresponsibility in Democrats, for
example. "Democrats promised to cut student loan interest rates in
half," he tells the faithful. "But they don't mention who will cover
the $60 billion it will cost the federal government to do this over
five years (Source: House Budget Committee Republican staff)..."

That
$60 billion is probably the high estimate, given the source. But it
takes a lot of guts for the House Majority Leader to gripe about
spending without paying for it, when his party did the same thing --
likely for a similar amount -- on their last day in session:

Associated Press:

The
House voted overwhelmingly Friday to expand offshore oil drilling and
preserve a variety of popular tax breaks for families and businesses,
but the wide-ranging last-minute package faced serious opposition in
the Senate from lawmakers angry about trade provisions and its $50
billion cost.

How you going to pay for that, John?

Lefties
will be happy to learn that there aren't a whole lot of actual ideas in
the memo. It's mostly just spin. For example, Boehner says, "Democrats
promised to apply government price controls to the Medicare
prescription drug benefit. But as the Washington Post recently
reported: '[A]s Democrats prepare to take control of Congress, they are
struggling to keep that promise without wrecking a program that has
proven cheaper and more popular than anyone imagined.'" What Boehner
doesn't mention is that the dems want to use the government's muscle as
a drug buyer to negotiate lower drug prices. In fact, Boehner's guilty
of out and out lying here, since haggling and instituting price
controls are two different things. It was Boehner's congress who made
it illegal for government to negotiate drug prices -- a blatant payback for big pharma campaign cash that should be repealed yesterday.

CNN:

In
layman's terms, the bill bars the Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS), which purchases drugs for some seniors under Medicare,
from negotiating with drug companies to get better prices, a practice
the Federal Government employs routinely in negotiations with other
contractors, such as defense suppliers.

So
Boehner's big strategy to retake the House is more of the same -- spin,
PR, and propaganda. It's not a strategy paper, so much as it is a
laundry list of talking points. You'd think that Boehner would've
learned at least one thing from Iraq; you can't argue reality into
agreement with ideology. A list of things you wish were true isn't
anything near a strategy and talking points are only a tactic.

Without
any real ideas, the GOP is in big trouble. Shortly after the election,
Lawrence O'Donnell said he thought dems could have a 'generational
hold.' "Not forty years like last time," he wrote, "But twenty years is
not out of the question."

With 'strategies' like those written out by John Boehner, I'd say that's pretty much a given.