The Club for Growth's Ridiculous Attack on Republican Moderates

The anti-government “Club for Growth” is out of control. Last week, the far-right group launched television advertisements attacking moderate Republican Senators George Voinovich (R-OH), Olympia Snowe (R-ME) for their insistence that the cost of the Bush Administration’s latest tax cut be trimmed from $726 billion to $350 billion. The group also threatened to run negative ads against Representative Amo Houghton (R-NY), founder of the Republican Main Street Partnership, an organization that supports moderate Republican policies and candidates.

Moderate Republicans who stand up for fiscal responsibility in a time of war and reconstruction abroad and exploding deficits at home are doing their nation a great and very brave service. We know the Bush political team’s tactic of using every economic dip as an excuse to cut taxes for high-income taxpayers is not working to improve the economy. We need a new, balanced economic strategy that includes real spending restraint, and a bipartisan, problem-solving political approach.

Political gridlock is bad for struggling economies. For example, Japan’s consensus-based and slow moving political system could not effectively respond to the banking problems revealed when the Japanese stock and real estate markets crashed in the early 1990s. As a result, the Japanese economy stagnated, and years later, no recovery is in sight.

The U.S faces a different kind of gridlock caused by the polarization of our political climate. Political gerrymandering of legislative districts into “safe seats” for either party has shut independent and moderate voters -- the real majority of the electorate -- out of the political system. Republicans directly attack their moderates with television ads and primary challenges financed by extremist groups like the Club for Growth. Democrats don’t directly attack their centrists in primaries; instead, Democratic legislative leaders undermine their moderates by forcing them into political votes untenable back home (ask ex-Senator Max Cleland).

We have real and very difficult problems to solve. Overseas, we face years of sustained commitment of American time, lives, and treasure to prevent terrorism and weapons proliferation. Domestically, we face a new health care crisis, a suddenly grave long-term deficit outlook, a looming wave of entitlement costs as the baby boom generation retires, and an economy that desperately needs a spark of optimism and confidence.

Extremist and polarizing political tactics like those of the Club For Growth aren’t helping us find solutions to any of our problems.

Links:
Republican Main Street Partnership
Washington Post column by David Broder “Moderates With New Muscle” (April 18, 2003)
Washington Post Editorial “Farce, Tragedy, and Taxes” (April 13, 2003)
New York Times “Republican Feuding Muddles Outlook for a Bush Plan” (April 17)
Progressive Policy Institute “Losing Confidence in Economic Policy and Political Processes: A Lesson from Japan” (August 28, 2002)

Posted by Jeff Lemieux at April 25, 2003 09:51 PM