"GOP Plays Defense, But Where's the Policy Agenda?"

[applegrove]

GOP Plays Defense, But Where's the Policy Agenda?

By Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann at NBC News

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/gop-plays-defense-wheres-policy-agenda-n214771

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ast Saturday marked the 20th anniversary of the Republican Party’s “Contract with America” -- the major reforms the House GOP said it would pass when it took control of Congress. And the anniversary is all the more noteworthy because, 20 years later as Republicans are in sight of having majorities in both the House and Senate next year, the GOP isn’t campaigning on new reforms or policies. Instead, it’s playing political prevent defense to capitalize on an unpopular president and in a midterm environment that almost always benefits the political party not in charge of the White House. In their midterm messaging, Republican say they want to repeal the federal health-care law, but replace it with what? They want to “secure” the border, but how do you accomplish that (and at what cost)? And they want to take the fight to ISIS in the Middle East, but aren’t leaving the campaign trail to vote on authorizing U.S. military force there. (Over the weekend, House Speaker John Boehner said he would call the House back into session for an authorization vote, but only if President Obama called for one.) As Lou Zickar of the Ripon Society, a moderate GOP group, put it: The 1994 Contract with America “is a moment worth remembering because it was also a time when the GOP loudly and proudly proclaimed not what they stood against, but what they stood for.” And remember for these Republican Senate candidates, they’re running for six-year terms, and four of those years will be spent when someone other than Barack Obama is in the White House.

The Contract with (Nearly) Nothing

Republicans counter that they do have policies and reforms they’re pushing. “We have focused like a laser for the last three and a half years on jobs and the economy,” Boehner told ABC. “Over 40 bills sitting in the U.S. Senate. Let's start with those bills. How about repealing the tax on medical devices? Broad bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate. How about the Keystone pipeline? Broad bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate.” But that’s it? Economic legislation that is likely never going to be signed by a Democratic president, repealing a medical-device tax, and approving the Keystone XL pipeline represent the GOP’s agenda as it stands on the cusp of controlling the 114th Congress? That’s a far cry from 1994. What are Republicans going to do controlling both the House and Senate? What will their first 100 days look like? We don’t have an answer.




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[Fred Sanders]

1. Chuck Todd signed on to this article? Who was holding the gun?