Feehery: The power of no
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) addresses reporters during a press event on Thursday, September 29, 2022 to discuss House Republican’s 'Commitment to America' plan.
It was William F. Buckley who said, “A conservative is someone who stands athwart history, yelling ‘Stop,’ at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.”
“Stop” is a pretty good strategy for congressional Republicans, once they take control of Congress in a few weeks.
Never has a political party had more to gain than by just deploying the power of no.
I am totally in favor of the House Republicans’ “Commitment to America.”
As somebody who worked to help pass the famed “Contract with America” in 1994, I am a real believer in the importance of congressional majorities putting forward positive pieces of legislation that they hope will capture the attention of the American people and evade the president’s veto pen.
But let’s be realistic.
There are so many bad things that the Biden administration has foisted on the American people in two short years, that just telling the executive branch to stop it will be very good for the country.
The new House majority will have two tools in its toolshed that it must use to stop the president from doing dumb things: the power to investigate and the power of the purse.
The new Senate majority will have an additional tool in its tool shed: the power to approve the president’s choices for executive branch positions and his choices to appoint new judges.
And in all cases, the power to just say “no” to the woke mob who is now running the White House will be the common thread that ties the Republican Party together.
You want examples? I have examples.
The Republicans should immediately hold hearings on the president’s efforts to stifle free speech on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Doing an exhaustive investigation should be enough to get these big platforms to stop deplatforming scientists who have consistently disagreed with various COVID-19 narratives, some of which have turned out to be false or misleading.
The new majority should do a deep probe into how the new IRS agents hired by the president in his Inflation Reduction Act will work to meet the goals of the IRA to raise billions of revenue without targeting anybody who makes under $400,000.
The Republicans should pledge to stop all new funding for any executive branch entity that is making it harder for America to be energy self-sufficient.
The Republicans should target certain offices in the Department of Justice and the FBI that have been at the forefront of targeting political enemies of the Biden administration. They shouldn’t get any more funding.
The new majority should do a top-to-bottom investigation of all Department of Education funding. How much money has the Biden administration earmarked to achieve its woke agenda? How much is spent to promote the transgender agenda? How about critical race theory?
Why did Democrats stop building the wall along our southern border? This would be good fodder for a congressional investigation.
How about in the Department of Defense? How much money is wasted on achieving some far-left goals that have nothing to do with making our country more secure?
Republicans should be methodical in their approach to holding the president’s feet to the fire.
They should complete the budget process early, so that the appropriations committees can get to work, grinding out hearings and using the power of the purse to put the executive branch on notice that whatever they have been doing for the last two years to ruin the country is going to stop.
If House and Senate Republicans decide to use reconciliation, they need to be smart to isolate issues that resonate with the American people, because it is highly doubtful that the president is going to sign anything that will actually be good for the country.
In the meantime, congressional Republicans should set expectations for the country and the voters. It is a huge victory to stop all the bad stuff coming from the Biden administration. There is immense power that comes from just saying “no.” The Republicans should say “no” over and over again.
Feehery is a partner at EFB Advocacy and blogs at thefeeherytheory.com. He served as spokesman to former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), as communications director to former House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and as a speechwriter to former House Minority Leader Bob Michel (R-Ill.).