House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said Wednesday that congressional Republicans 'don’t feel like they understand the coherent strategy' of the Bush administration — 'if there is one.' GOP hits Bush on econ troubles

Whipsawed by the government’s on-again, off-again intervention in the nation’s financial crisis, House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said Wednesday that congressional Republicans “don’t feel like they understand the coherent strategy” of the Bush administration — “if there is one.”

Republicans are upset with the White House on two fronts.


First, they say that administration officials haven’t done enough to keep them in the loop on its plans for addressing the crisis.

Second, they don’t much like the plans: Intervening — as the administration has done with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and now AIG — doesn’t comport with the GOP’s core belief in the free market.

“There is confidence in [Federal Reserve Chairman Ben] Bernanke, but that reservoir is not limitless,” House Republican Conference Chairman Adam Putnam (R-Fla.) said. “People need to understand what the guiding principles are behind this ad hoc strategy.

“How do you decide that AIG is worthy of a bailout, but Lehman Brothers is not? There has to be some better understanding of that.”

But understanding the “guiding principles” means talking them through, and Putnam said the White House hasn’t done enough of that. “The communication lines are not operating efficiently,” he said.

Although Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson traveled to the Hill on Tuesday evening to brief lawmakers on the AIG bailout, many Republicans said they were caught off guard by the bailout when it was announced a few hours later.

Putnam said the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve should dispatch an envoy to Capitol Hill to keep members up to speed on the latest developments.

Republicans aren’t the only ones complaining.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) let it be known earlier this week that Paulson had postponed a planned appearance before his committee but still found time to deliver a speech at a think tank on the day he was scheduled to appear.

And Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) complained Wednesday that he “hadn’t heard anything about” the AIG bailout until Tuesday night.

“I was disappointed to learn this had been under discussion for days,” Reid said.

Republican frustration runs deeper.

The chairman of the 100-strong conservative Republican Study Committee, Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, said that the administration has stumbled down a road that makes many conservatives uncomfortable.

“It’s time to bail out the taxpayers from bailout mania,” Hensarling said. “Neither the secretary of the Treasury nor the Fed has articulated a clear standard” for who gets bailed out and who doesn’t. “We’ve given a blank check to the secretary of the Treasury.”

Republican Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky was more blunt.

“To say I am outraged by this would be an understatement,” Bunning said. “The greed on Wall Street is only exceeded by the stupidity of the Treasury secretary and the chairman of the Federal Reserve.”

Bunning compared the federal government’s interventions with the actions of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez — and not favorably. “The only difference between what the Fed did and what Hugo Chavez is doing in Venezuela is Chavez doesn’t put taxpayer dollars at risk when he takes over companies — he just takes them,” he said.

Another small-government crusader, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), complained that “failed government policies” allowed the financial crisis to occur in the first place.

“Our leaders need to wake up, exercise some real discipline, and push for policies that reduce the failed role of government and reduce taxes on American investment to attract new capital to our markets.”

The Club for Growth, a guiding light for fiscal conservatives, celebrated the weekend’s announcement that Lehman Brothers would be left to die, saying, “Resisting another bailout was a smart move.”

The group was silent Wednesday in the wake of the $86 billion AIG intervention.