10 takeaways from the fiscal fight (by npr)

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10 Takeaways from the fiscal fightby FRANK JAMES

October 17, 201311:12 AM

Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, walks past reporters after a meeting with House

Republicans on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. House Republicans backed down and passed legislation to end the

government shutdown and avoid a debt default.

Evan Vucci/AP

With the double crises of a partial government shutdown and a potential debt defaultresolved, it's a good time to consider some of the lessons we learned from the dysfunction

and drama of recent weeks.

Here are 10 of them:

Shutting Down The Government Is Not A Winning Political StrategyOnce again, the GOP brand was hurt because of a failure to learn from past mistakes.

Republicans were warned before this shutdown that it could seriously hurt the party's

approval ratings, as it did during the last shutdown showdown, in 1996. Many Republicansconvinced themselves that this time was different. It wasn't. Most Americans like

government more than they let on.

Obama Wasn't BluffingThis time the president meant it when he said he wasn't going to let Republicans use

government shutdowns or potential debt defaults to pressure him into making policychanges. Obama had actually signaled his shift long before the current fight. But his message

either wasn't heard clearly by enough of the right people or they expected him to blink first.

The House GOP Is UngovernableThe wheels have truly come off the House Republican Conference. The GOP-controlled

House was already one of the least productive in recent history largely because of Speaker


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John Boehner's difficulty in getting a majority of votes on controversial legislation from hisfractured group. The two-week shutdown just furthers the perception of a caucus in disarray

and raises real questions about how the House will be able to move major legislation like an

immigration overhaul or budget bills.

Boehner's Speakership Rises And Falls

A corollary to House Republicans being adrift is the state of Boehner's speakership. It's a taleof two Boehners, actually. Inside his conference, Boehner strengthened his hand by allowing

the Tea Party faction to drive the House GOP strategy. Those Tea Party members have

praised Boehner for his handling of the shutdown-debt ceiling fight, making a challenge tohis speakership unlikely. But Boehner's hand is weaker outside his conference, compared

with Obama and Reid, which could have real consequences in negotiations with Democrats.

And with voter approval of congressional Republicans bumping the bottom, it will be hardfor him to argue that Republican positions widely reflect Americans' wishes.

The Hastert Rule Really Isn't One

It took the current crisis for Republican Dennis Hastert, the former House speaker, to say it

wasjust common sense, not an actual rule. As speaker, you want to make sure a majority of

your party supports legislation before you bring it to the House floor. But if it takes votes

from the other party to pass important bills, so be it. Boehner and Hastert don't talk, so

Hastert couldn't apparently tell Boehner this directly.The Senate Emerges Enhanced

Well, at least in contrast to a weaker House. By once again arriving at a deal to avert

financial disaster after an abysmal House failure, as it has done several times now, the Senate

is clearly the more functional of the two chambers. Of course, that's a relative term.

Sen. Mitch McConnell Isn't Panicking

Cutting a deal to end the impasse with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid? Maybe the

Kentucky senator and minority leader isn't as frightened by his Tea Party-backed primary

challenger, Matt Bevin, as people think. McConnell's last minute efforts toward compromisesuggest McConnell could be looking past Bevin and toward the general election contest with

Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Democratic Kentucky secretary of state who's raising lots of

money and polling competitively against him.

Sen. Ted Cruz Is Running For President In 2016

The Texas senator would be a strong contender for the Tea Party presidential nomination ifthere were one. But as the leading proponent of the strategy of shutting down the government

in an effort to gut the Affordable Care Act, he's reduced his general election appeal. Indeed,

the Houston Chronicle, which endorsed him for Senate, now has buyer's remorse.

The Hard-Liners May Have Gone Too Far

Even some conservative Republicans have had just about enough of the hard-line Tea Party

members. And they're speaking out. Consider Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., who told theNational Journal that Tea Party lawmakers' "allegiance is not to the members in the

conference. Their allegiance is not to the leadership team and to conservative values. Theirallegiance is to these outside Washington DC interest groups that raise money and go after

conservative Republicans."How To Blow A Golden Political OpportunityThe irony of the fiscal fight is that the story of the terribly botched Affordable Care Act

rollout has been buried by the shutdown and debt ceiling news. The lesson? If you want to

lift the curtain on a monumentally glitchy major project like the enrollment process for

health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, you'd be wise to wait until the nation is

wildly distracted by a government shutdown and potential debt default.


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10 takeaways from the fiscal fight (by npr)

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