There was a time when Dick Cheney could turn back a Republican revolt on Capitol Hill. Not anymore. House GOP rises up against Cheney

There was a time when Dick Cheney could turn back a Republican revolt on Capitol Hill.

That time is gone.


The vice president traveled to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to silence a chorus of GOP complaints about Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s $700 billion plan. But House Republicans who walked into a closed-door meeting with Cheney steaming over the plan walked out just as angry, and they described what happened in between as both “a bloodbath” and “an unmitigated disaster.”

Texas Rep. Joe Barton took the unusual step of telling reporters gathered outside the Cannon Caucus Room that he had confronted Cheney “respectfully” about his concerns — a level of dissent Republicans once considered heresy under the Bush administration.

Another lawmaker present — who spoke on the condition of anonymity — said that Cheney, White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten and economic policy adviser Keith Hennessey “were in worse shape when they left than when they came in.”

Cheney’s inability to turn around members of his own party said plenty about how congressional Republicans view the Bush White House these days — but maybe even more about their discomfort with a bailout plan many of them see as an attack on their free market principles.

“It’s a sad fact, but Americans can no longer trust the economic information they are getting from this administration,” South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint said in a comment posted on Politico’s Arena forum.



“There is tremendous unease over the federal government assuming the assets that these financial institutions cannot price or manage,” said Alabama Rep. Spencer Bachus, the ranking Republican on the committee drafting the legislation.

It wasn’t clear Tuesday whether Republicans were willing to take responsibility for killing the Paulson plan — but neither were they eager to take responsibility for passing it, either.

Republican leaders are now hoping Democrats load the legislation with unrelated measures that would give them the political cover to oppose it, members and aides said. At the same time, party leaders are using back channels in the business community to gauge member support for a “clean” bill.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) warned his former colleagues that they would pay a price in November for backing the bailout now — and that John McCain could ride to victory over Barack Obama by persuading voters that the bailout is really the “Obama-Bush plan.” While McCain seemed to move in the other direction Tuesday, Gingrich called the Paulson plan “stupid,” “a really bad idea” and “the kind of corrupt scheme that could have been designed by [Russian Prime Minister] Vladimir Putin.”

Despite the anxieties — and outright anger — expressed during the Republicans’ nearly two-hour exchange with Cheney and the other White House officials, lawmakers remained respectful enough to give the vice president two standing ovations.

Still, a lawmaker present said that Cheney and his team “were the wrong guys” to send to the Hill: “The problem is that they’ve used up a lot of goodwill.”

Hennessey and Bolten — who shares a Goldman Sachs pedigree with Paulson — faced a number of tough questions about why the bailout was necessary, how it would actually work and why this particular plan was the best response to the current crisis, according to notes circulated from the meeting.

Cheney and the others made policy arguments for the proposal instead of political arguments that would help lawmakers explain a vote for the plan to constituents. The meeting was almost an hour old when the vice president told the anxious Republicans, in response to a question, that failure to pass this would result in more foreclosures and cause grave hardship for their constituents.

“No one sold it,” one member present said. “Nobody has figured out how to sell it when you’re knocking on voters’ doors.”

Conservatives present also grilled the assembled White House officials about what alternatives the administration considered before coming up with this plan.

Hill Republicans have circulated their own alternatives. Most deal with long-term issues — tax reform, regulatory overhauls or comprehensive energy proposals — that lack the immediate impact Treasury seeks.

But GOP lawmakers are getting more specific. Conservatives on the Republican Study Committee offered an alternative package Tuesday afternoon. Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee, which includes plenty of conservatives, were expected to offer their own alternative package later in the day.

Ironically, Democrats are addressing many of the GOP concerns by adding more government oversight of the program and limiting the pay of top executives whose companies seek an infusion of federal funds. “That’s one thing we’re in total agreement on,” Bachus said of the compensation limits.

GOP leaders are still on the fence publicly. House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) told his rank-and-file colleagues Tuesday morning that the need to act was very real, imploring them to do something.

But Boehner is caught in a tough spot. He sees the need to act, but his members hate the plan. Other elected leaders could pull the rug out from underneath him by coming out against the administration proposal.

A rumor circulated among his rank and file this week that Boehner and other leaders have already agreed to support the plan in principle, but Boehner’s staff shot down any suggestion that he embraces drafts circulating on Capitol Hill.

The pragmatic Republican assured colleagues that he “hates” the proposal and remains angry that Wall Street brought the economy to this point, members present said. He also promised to vote against the eventual bill if he doesn’t agree with it.

Addressing reporters afterward, Boehner, who invited Cheney to the Hill on Tuesday, reiterated his desire to see Congress pass bailout legislation, even as he acknowledged other Republicans’ concerns.

“It’s the size of the solution that causes great concern and trying to gauge the risk-to-reward ratio,” Boehner told reporters. “How serious is the problem, and how imminent is the crisis? I believe that the risk to our economy is severe and Congress must act.”

Daniel W. Reilly contributed to this story.

This article tagged under: 2010

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