My friend Bob Maistros doesn’t think the incoming Republican majority in the House is serious about cutting federal spending. Why? Largely because they’ve never been serious about it before. The inevitable shrieks of torment from those would lose their federal largess have always been enough to cow our Republican heroes into quick submission, and there is sure to be no shortage of shrieking this time.

Bob is also convinced that they will quickly fail the crucial test of whether they are willing to cut ethanol subsidies – the definitive indicator of budget-cutting seriousness. Of course, this was declared to be the definitive indicator by Bob himself, so it’s entirely possible that the GOP might enact serious cuts in a broad sense while still falling on their faces with respect to ethanol.

Bob wants to see the new majority “create a philosophical basis and a standard for cutting outlays,” and since no such philosophical basis appears to be in the offing, Bob expects failure.

Now you have to understand Bob. He is a rabid fan of Cleveland sports teams. And with the exception of recent games against recent Super Bowl winners, the Browns never do anything but lose (and abandon the town, sort of like LeBron James). And as for the Indians, well, the closest they’ve come to celebrating lately has been the strange schadenfreude they felt when Jhonny Peralta signed a two-year deal with my Detroit Tigers.

Hey! Guys. Jhonny just needed to get on a good team.

But look, I can understand that Bob has been programmed to expect failure. Ever since his gig as chief writer for the Reagan-Bush ’84 campaign, he’s gotten nowhere near the top of a mountain like that again (nor have any of us).

And yet Bob offers a proposition that makes so much sense, it’s hard to imagine the House Republicans don’t see it, and it is this: “I’ve been saying for a decade that the party that ultimately catches on to this reality, that can convince the public that it is truly focused on doing the right thing for the right reasons, can rule for a generation.”

He’s right! The American electorate did not go to the polls last week and vote Republican because it likes out-of-control federal spending. Even recognizing the Republicans’ failure the last time around to corral it, the voters clearly recognized that if anyone is going to do it from here on in, it will have to be a chastened Republican Party given a second chance. It will certainly not be the Democrats of Pelosi, Reid and Obama.

So if ever there was a time when the electorate was receptive to this message, it would seem to be now. The newly empowered majority can come forth with solid data, such as Paul Ryan’s Roadmap for America’s Future, to illustrate the reality we face. It can admit its past failures, with the election safely past. It can exercise the power of the purse.

And when special interests – be they for ethanol, Social Security or mohair – wail and gnash their teeth, Republicans can implore a receptive electorate to recognize these examples of why fiscal discipline has failed so many times in the past, and why we must not allow the same thing to happen again.

I don’t mean to suggest it will be easy. Federal spending will not be brought under control unless entitlement programs are reformed, and that will take far more political courage than Republicans have ever shown in the past. But as I pointed out last week, even hinting at it in this year’s campaign brought the full force of the Democratic toss-granny-in-the-street attacks that had been feared for so many years, they turned out to be impotent. Like the Ghostbusters bravely deciding to cross the streams, the Republicans survived the one thing they were sure would kill them.

The stakes have changed.

I suppose that the longer you stay in Washington, the easier it is to believe you can never go wrong betting against real change there. But if Bob is right, and those courageous enough to stand up and do what needs to be done can lead America for a generation (and I for one think he is), then he can’t possibly be the only person in Washington who can see it.

Could it be that John Boehner sees it too? And even if he and Mitch McConnell don’t (and the latter probably doesn’t), could it be that the likes of Marco Rubio, Kristi Noem, Ron Johnson and Tim Walberg will make sure they get it, by hook or by crook?

History doesn’t always repeat itself, you know. Some things never ever ever ever happen, until they do. Some things go on forever, until they come to an end. And maybe, just maybe, with an opportunity for generational leadership staring them in the face as a reward for doing the right thing . . . maybe the GOP won’t blow it this time.

Not that I expect that sort of optimism from a Cleveland fan. Then again, Bob, ask the Saints and the Patriots. On any given Sunday, someone just might rise up and shock the world.

Become Dan’s friend on Facebook.

Become a fan of The North Star National on Facebook.

Buy Dan’s new novel, Pharmakeia.

To book Dan as a speaker, contact Lourdes Swarts at Speakers Access.

One Response to “The cure for the Maistros melancholy: A GOP that really, truly cuts federal spending”