Five Resolutions for Republicans in 2015

[Valin]

The Fiscal Times:

Edward Morrissey

Dec. 23 2014

 

Be careful what you wish for – you just might get it. The proverbial warning should be ringing in the ears of Republican leadership on Capitol Hill as the opening day for the 114^th Session of Congress draws near. After eight years in the wilderness – and perhaps four years later than they initially predicted – voters have once again entrusted control of both chambers to the GOP.

 

That doesn’t mean that the electorate has fallen in love with Republicans. In 1994, Newt Gingrich led the Republican Party to a historic victory against a popular but overreaching Bill Clinton by setting a clear national agenda: the Contract with America. Unlike that election of twenty years ago, the GOP managed to win the 2014 midterms and install majorities in the House and Senate without any clear national agenda, save opposition an unpopular President.

 

In that, the 2014 result resembles less the 1994 victory that ended 40 years of Democratic control of the House, and more like the 2006 win spearheaded by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. They also beat an unpopular President dogged by questions of competence and scandal, and presaged a clean sweep by Democrats two years later in the presidential election.

 

Yet two years after that, Democrats had lost the House in a landslide and nearly the Senate – and did lose the upper chamber four years after getting the first sign of an electorate fed up with their own overreach. Therein lies one danger for Republicans, who now control the agenda and can coordinate floor votes for the first time in eight years. Can the GOP leadership demonstrate that they can govern responsibly and set the table for their party’s nominee in 2016? Or do they indulge in indiscriminate obstructionism and further alienate already-skeptical voters?

 

With that in mind, here are five New Years’ resolutions for the GOP in 2015:

 

(Snip)