No grassroots confidence left in GOP leadership

That sound you hear coming from Washington, D.C. is the white flag of surrender flapping in the breeze. The upper echelon of the Republican Congressional leadership has officially capitulated to liberalism.

It isn’t a productive use of time to ponder why this happened. Along the way the leadership lost its nerve, and has slowly and systematically retreated, to the point where they no longer remember what it truly means to lead a nation and advance a conservative agenda.

{mosads}The just-passed 1,600 page $1.1 TRILLION spending bill was the final corner nail in the coffin.  This wasn’t just some Paul Ryan budget to be used as a guideline. This bill was our money being spread all across Washington to pay for Barack Obama’s disgustingly large bureaucracy. 

What are we paying for, exactly? Courtesy of the Republican leadership, we are paying for an IRS to target conservatives and muzzle conservative thought. Courtesy of the Republican leadership, we are paying for Kathleen Sibelius and Barack Obama to rip our doctors and rip our health insurance out from underneath us. Courtesy of the Republican leadership, we are paying for the EPA to invade every facet of our businesses. Courtesy of the Republican leadership, we are paying our government to regulate every move we make.

Unless and until Congressional Republicans reassert their constitutional authority over the rules and regulation-making process in this country, we will not succeed as a free people. And this current leadership group: Boehner, McConnell, Cantor, Cornyn and all the rest, have shown no appetite to reign in this bureaucracy. Instead, they fund it, giving Barack Obama nearly every penny he wants. 

For three days last week the House Republican conference was secluded together, meeting, discussing, and strategizing over the Republican agenda for the year. What emerged was more of the same: empty rhetoric and empty promises.

Take ObamaCare. Four years ago, the GOP was elected to the majority in the House to save the American people from this mess and give us back our healthcare system. They have had four years to sell the American people on an alternative vision. FOUR YEARS.

Exiting the retreat, the GOP pledged to vote to repeal and replace ObamaCare in 2014. Will they attach it to must-pass legislation? No. Are there details the GOP would like to share with the American people? No. Will there be a vote any time soon? No. Maybe…maybe a few months from now, so they said.

Golly gee folks, thanks. Rome is burning, but I know you’ve got your re-election primary that’s more important. Please, take your time. (Insert sarcasm here).

On the debt ceiling deadline which comes up this month, already the predictable GOP tough talk about “getting something” for their approval of another increase has already segued into the predictable leak from unnamed “leadership aides” that there will be a clean debt ceiling bill with no concessions from Obama.  No spending cuts to offset the debt limit increase, no green-lighting of the Keystone pipeline project which would create a minimum of 20,000 jobs across six states in Middle America. Nothing, nada, zilch.

The truth is that this current leadership team – in both the House and the Senate – has no game plan whatsoever on how to deal with the attendant political and policy issues of the day.  Time and again they have allowed themselves to be outmaneuvered, outhustled and outmuscled by Obama and the Democrats.

Not only has the Republican leadership repeatedly capitulated to President Obama and the Congressional Democrats on issue after issue, they cannot point to a single accomplishment that reflects bona fide conservative principles.  Yet once again this year, another election year, they will go back home to voters and promise to fight for conservative principles if re-elected.  If the same leadership remains in place, we will only have ourselves to blame when they repeatedly fail and capitulate in the next session of Congress.

That is why ForAmerica is launching the “Dump the Leadership” campaign, because Republicans, Independents, and Conservatives all deserve better. There is too much at stake for our country to continue this lunacy. It’s time for them to go.

Bozell is executive director of ForAmerica, the nation’s largest active online conservative network with 4.5 million supporters.