Tea Party-Backed Freshmen Stir Things Up In House

Enlarge this image toggle caption Charles Dharapak/AP Charles Dharapak/AP

It's been about a month since Republicans took charge of the House of Representatives. The "cut and grow majority," as they called it, charged in full steam ahead, ready to change the way the Congress runs and to slash federal spending across the government.

But somewhere in the past few weeks, things started to get difficult for GOP leaders. Now, they seem to be having trouble running the House floor and even keeping their own members united.

Perhaps the first sign of real problems within the House GOP was its response to President Obama's State of the Union address two weeks ago. Or rather, the two responses: one from Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the Budget Committee chairman; and another from Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, a Tea Party favorite.

But if that was the first sign, this week is the confirmation.

First, the Republicans had to yank a trade bill from the House schedule when they realized they didn't have the votes to pass it — even though the GOP has a 49-seat advantage in the House.

Then Tuesday night, Republicans actually lost a vote on extending some Patriot Act provisions that allow the government to get roving wiretaps, track lone-wolf terrorists, and get records from libraries and businesses.

And on Wednesday afternoon, Republicans lost another vote — this time on cutting funds to the United Nations.

So the GOP is having a terrible week.

"We've been in the majority four weeks. We're not going to be perfect every day," House Speaker John Boehner said.

He brushed off the problems, especially losing the Patriot Act vote. Republican leaders brought it to the floor under a procedure that requires a two-thirds majority for it to pass, so they only have to reschedule it under regular rules, and it will likely go through. Basically, they miscalculated. And that's probably because they didn't expect 26 of their own Republican members to vote against it — most of them freshmen or Tea Party members.

Republicans are also retooling their message. It turns out the banner "cut and grow" wasn't resonating as much as they had hoped — because it was missing an important word: jobs. Democrats picked up on this and started hammering.

"I rise today to ask my Republican friends a simple question: Where is the job creation agenda?" Virginia Democrat Gerry Connolly said. "In the first month of the 112th, this body has not taken up a single piece of legislation that will create jobs and put Americans back to work."

So now Boehner and other Republican leaders are trying to explain how their "cut and grow" agenda really is about lowering unemployment.

"Republicans are continuing to be focused on creating an environment that will get economic activity moving in America and help create jobs," Boehner said.

On top of all this, another storm is brewing within the Republican majority, even as it unveils what should be a signature piece of legislation: the bill to fund the federal government for the rest of the year.

The chairman of the Appropriations Committee has released proposed budget cuts to everything from job training programs to food safety inspections to zeroing out the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which contributes to NPR and public radio stations. But within the GOP, lawmakers want to cut deeper.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says it's not a bad problem to have.

"We said we were going to change the culture in Washington, and I don't think any of us can really remember a time in which we were really bickering about the levels of spending cuts," he says.

So what is it that's making things so difficult and messy for the new majority?

It's largely the bloc of voters who won them the majority in the first place. Those upstart freshmen, many of whom rode the Tea Party wave into victory last November, came ready to fight — with anyone, including their own party leaders.