http://www.boston.com/news/nat...s_some_gop_resistance/
In any case, Bush is certainly going down a path on his own, regardless of any criticism or debate about his policies. He has become the epitome of arrogance and hubris.
I really think Bush is suffering from a mental malady. At the least, he has delusions of grandeur. Perhaps it's from the blinding light of God that has spoke to him and given him is ideological vision. Perhaps it's the lack of brain cells from years of alcoholism and snorting cocaine.WASHINGTON -- Republicans in Congress are growing increasingly vocal in their opposition to major items on President Bush's agenda, calling into question the likelihood of Bush's ambitious second-term program passing, even as he prepares to take the oath of office with an expanded majority of his own party.
At least four elements of Bush's plans are drawing reactions from Republicans ranging from outright opposition to quiet discomfort. The cracks in party unity are appearing at a time when the White House needs to move quickly to implement new policies before the momentum coming out of the November elections fades.
Some fiscal conservatives are balking at the price tag and political wisdom of Bush's plan to create personal retirement accounts for part of Social Security, with the federal budget deficit already at a record level and Democrats ready to demonize Republicans as hurting retirees.
A coalition that includes some of the House's most powerful Republican members is seeking to tighten the nation's borders and crack down on illegal immigration, even as Bush seeks to grant some illegal immigrants special permits to allow them to work legally in the United States.
A group of conservative House members is threatening to try to roll back portions of the Medicare prescription drug benefit before it takes effect in 2006, setting up an intra-party fight over one of Bush's signature accomplishments.
Bush's proposal to extend the testing provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act to cover high schools, which the White House unveiled last Wednesday, is getting a cool reception from some GOP members of Congress, who don't want further federal involvement in local schools or the vast increases in education spending the president is calling for.
Representative Tom Tancredo, a Colorado Republican, said many Republicans in Congress were hesitant to criticize the president during his reelection campaign, for fear of hurting the party's chances in the election. But members of what he called the "bite-your-lip caucus" now have no reason to hold back their reservations, he said, and they don't owe the administration blind loyalty.
"As of Nov. 2, that caucus is dissolved," said Tancredo, who is leading Republican efforts to crack down on illegal immigration. "Second-term presidents don't have a terribly impressive success rate. . . . I don't know where he's going to get the votes to do some of these things."
Bush in recent days has held a series of public events to garner support for his proposal to have younger workers invest a portion of their payroll taxes in private markets instead of the Social Security system and for his plan to invest an additional $1.5 billion in public schools as part of a yearly testing program for high school students.
Despite their losses in November, Democratic leaders have dug in against some of the largest items on the Bush agenda, particularly a Social Security overhaul.
Bush himself realizes how limited the opportunity to implement the agenda is.
"We got to get moving and get some things done before . . . people kind of write me off," Bush told CBS News in an interview that aired last night.
But warning shots fired by conservative Republicans in recent days suggest that the administration may have more trouble within its own party than it will from the diminished ranks of Democrats, who suffered a net loss of four seats in the Senate and two in the House. Conservatives have grown frustrated with a Republican administration that has overseen federal spending that jumped by a quarter during the first Bush administration, said Brian M. Riedl, a budget specialist at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington.
Some GOP lawmakers are disappointed that Bush shepherded huge expansions in Medicare, education, and farm spending, and are becoming increasingly vocal in their opposition, Riedl said.
"Now we're faced with runaway spending and deficits as far as the eye can see," he said. "It has to be brought under control, or one begins to wonder what the difference is between Democrats and Republicans."
Bush himself has brushed aside the criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike, pronouncing himself unconcerned about naysayers as he seeks to spend the "political capital" he said he gained through his victory in November. In an interview published last week in the Washington Times, Bush said he did things that others said couldn't be done during his first term, and would continue to do so in his second.
"You're probably sitting there saying, 'Has the guy bit off more than he can chew?' " Bush told the newspaper. "The answer is, we will work as hard as we can to get as much as we can get done, as quickly as possible."
"In '01, it was like: 'You'll never get the taxes done. No chance.' And initially out of the box, some people said, over my dead body would they pass tax relief," he continued. "If I listened to all that, I'd just quit, you know. . . . But that's not the way I think."
John Feehery, a spokesman for House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, said that some Bush priorities will be hard to get through Congress but that the president has built up significant loyalty from Republican lawmakers. He said conservatives will be particularly pleased with Bush's next budget proposal, which is expected to hold spending at current levels or lower in virtually all areas except national defense and homeland security.
Bush last week unveiled the second stage of his No Child Left Behind legislation, this one designed to bring to high schools the testing and standards now in place at the elementary level. It's a central piece of the president's education agenda, but conservatives are questioning the government's ability to afford it, as well as the additional federal intervention in local schools.
"It's hard to square this one with conservative principles. It's an expansion of the federal government's role in education," said Representative Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican.
On immigration changes, Bush has promised to fight for his "guest worker" program, which he is billing as a common-sense way to deal with the reality of 8 million undocumented workers in the United States. While appealing to Hispanics, who have supported Bush in numbers unusual for a Republican, the issue splits GOP members of Congress, some of whom defer to businesses' dependence on low-wage workers, while others insist on a more secure border and heightened enforcement of immigration laws.
Several influential Republicans, including Representative F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., the Judiciary Committee chairman, and Representative David Dreier, Rules Committee chairman, are sponsoring bills that call for crackdowns on illegal immigration.
Tancredo, who heads the House Immigration Reform Caucus, said creating work permits for those who are in the United States illegally is the wrong direction to go and could encourage people to enter the country illegally. He said any bill that would create "amnesty" for undocumented immigrants would be harshly opposed by a majority of Republicans.
Bush has indicated that he will move quickly to transform Social Security, saying that the system is in "crisis" because of the coming retirements of baby boomers and the long-term fiscal instability of the program's funding mechanism. Most criticism to date has come from Democrats, but some Republicans, including Representative Robert R. Simmons of Connecticut, have questioned Bush's sudden focus on the issue, since the retirement system will be solvent for at least another 40 years.
Diverting payroll taxes from Social Security to private accounts is expected to cost between $1 trillion and $2 trillion in the coming decade, adding to a deficit currently pegged at $400 billion this year. Some members of the conservative Republican Study Committee have pronounced themselves skeptical of those costs, and Republicans are questioning the political wisdom of tinkering with the retirement program that so many elderly voters hold dear.
Still, Flake said he expects most Republicans to end up supporting the president on Social Security, because conservatives believe in reducing government's role.
"He's really pushing it hard, and harder than some people expected," Flake said. "We're giving people freedom, so we're moving in the right direction."
In any case, Bush is certainly going down a path on his own, regardless of any criticism or debate about his policies. He has become the epitome of arrogance and hubris.
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