John Boehner now heads a weakened leadership team. Wanted: House GOP agenda

House Republicans — who start their annual retreat in Williamsburg, Va., on Wednesday — are facing something of a conundrum: They have the majority but don’t know what to do with it.

When Republicans snatched back the House majority in 2010, they were armed with detailed plans to remake the federal government and stymie President Barack Obama’s legislative agenda.


Now, as they head into their second term in power, Speaker John Boehner’s leadership team is weakened. Look no further than the House floor Tuesday night: An amendment to plus-up spending for Hurricane Sandy damage passed with just 38 Republican votes.

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The leadership has yet to cobble together anything resembling an agenda, and their members are complaining about what they describe as poor messaging. Right now, House Republicans don’t know how to challenge Obama and whether it’s even worth the fight.

Republicans have also been operating entirely on the defensive against Obama, which worries many lawmakers. They threatened — along with Obama — to take the country over the fiscal cliff but in the name of rejecting taxes on wealthy Americans. Some House Republicans would rather see the country plunge into default than raise the debt ceiling, and others favor billions of dollars being stripped from government services as part of the sequester. Still more advocate a government shutdown when it comes time for it.

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The blank slate, and the GOP’s failure to communicate effectively with voters, is clearly troubling some Republicans.

After spending two years talking about the need to cut spending, Republicans are voicing frustration that it’s not resonating with middle-of-the-road voters.

“We need to purge from our thinking the slash-and-burn, cut-and-slice approach,” Wisconsin Rep. Reid Ribble said. “That’s not how to communicate.”

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Internal GOP polls back the GOP image problem: A mere 11 percent of respondents thought national spending and deficits were the most important issue facing the American public. Thirty-five percent pegged the economy as the top issue. The GOP has had a tough time connecting the two.

But even among Republicans, there’s no unified agreement on a fiscal agenda.

Lawmakers are publicly and privately promoting defaulting on the nation’s debt to gain leverage in fights with the White House. Washington state Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, No. 4 in House leadership, told POLITICO that House Republicans should consider shutting down the government, and other lawmakers are publicly promoting defaulting on the nation’s debt as an option. Boehner said at a closed leadership retreat in Warrenton, Va., over the weekend that “no one” should be saying default is an option.

After passing Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget twice over the past two years — which seeks to stop what Republicans describe as a tidal wave of debt by altering entitlement programs — GOP lawmakers fret that they’re wasting too much time talking about doomsday deficit scenarios years down the road rather than real concerns of voters in a still-recovering economy.

“We need to deal with the here and now,” said Oklahoma Rep. James Lankford, a member of GOP leadership and Ryan’s Budget Committee. “We need to be better with that. We’re all so anxious about what’s coming and how soon it’s coming, we don’t want it to be on our watch and do nothing.”

But as they head to Williamsburg for their annual retreat, the House GOP sits sandwiched between two legislative debates — the fiscal cliff and a trio of fights on the debt ceiling, government funding and the sequester — with the White House and congressional Democrats.

Times have changed for Republicans. For much of the past decade, they have been rallying around making permanent the Bush-era tax rates. Now, many have voted to let those rates lapse on high-income earners while keeping low middle-class rates. Now tax reform — long a Republican mantra — seems a distant possibility.

The fractured majority, the last bastion of power for Republicans in Washington, faces a more existential question: What does it mean to be a Republican during a second Obama term? How can they exact legislative victories from Obama while driving forward their own agenda in a town where they have just a sliver of control?

And what exactly is a Republican agenda at a time when complicated fiscal issues — on which Republicans used to have a distinct polling advantage — are at the fore?

“We need to talk about our strategy on dealing with the things that have to happen,” Illinois Rep. Aaron Schock said. “And then talk about what it is we want to happen and what’s the best way to use the most amount of leverage to get awareness and try to move on it.”

Ohio Rep. Patrick Tiberi, a close Boehner ally, is less optimistic. When asked about the next two years, he said: “It doesn’t look good.”

“We are going to adopt Barack Obama’s style,” Tiberi said in an interview, referring to a more overtly political stance. “Yes, we are going to do policy, but we are going to have to adopt this guy’s game plan and understand what he’s all about.”

Leadership is hoping to use this week’s confab to begin to weave together strategies on a number of lingering issues.

First and foremost, Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy will use the two-day gathering to listen to lawmakers’ ideas for how they think Republicans should fight Obama on the upcoming fiscal fights. In the past few legislative tussles with the president, the GOP has come away unhappy with the result. So this time, they’re seeking consensus on the ground with which they should be battling Obama and what should be considered victory, according to GOP insiders. House GOP leadership is desperately looking to tamp down — or, in some cases, alter — expectations of the rank and file in those upcoming fights.

“Hopefully, we’ll all get on the same sheet on what our plan is,” Ohio Rep. Steve Stivers said. “We’ve got two potential bites at the apple with different risks and different opportunities, so hopefully we will come together on one plan that everybody — or as many of us — as we can get on one sheet.”

While some close to leadership think that the sequester is fertile ground to extract concessions from Obama — Democrats and Republicans are looking to blunt cuts to the Pentagon — conservatives are looking to tangle with Obama on every single issue, which could be a problem for Boehner and leadership.

“I think America is worth fighting for, that’s why I fight so much,” said Georgia Rep. Tom Graves, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee. “You’re fighting for America. It’s not about a party, one policy or personal beliefs; it’s the future of our country.”

Another goal is to begin to craft a proactive agenda that can ride alongside the fiscal puzzles Washington has to solve. Republicans are yearning for action on issues ranging from education reform to immigration to a tax overhaul.

The House Republican retreat — organized by the lobbyist-funded Congressional Institute — has taken on a tone of a group searching for its identity. On Wednesday, shortly after arriving at the Kingsmill Resort, the party will sit through a polling presentation called “What happened and where are we now?” Afterward, Domino’s Pizza CEO Patrick Doyle will give a presentation called “Turning it around.”

Then, in what’s expected to be one of their longest and most contentious presentations, The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol and The Wall Street Journal’s Kim Strassel will host a panel called “What is the role of the Republican majority in the 113th Congress.”

On Thursday, Boehner and Cantor will host a presentation called “The Next 90 Days — planning for the first quarter.” That event will be hours before “Planning for the 113th Congress and Beyond,” which will feature Lankford, Boehner and Cantor. Both of those events will allow for “extensive member participation and feedback.”

There are themed events, as well , including: “Who speaks for middle America” and a discussion on “successful communication with minorities and women.” The latter panel will be hosted by Ana Navarro, a female Hispanic political consultant, and will feature Reps. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, Scott Rigell and Frank Wolf of Virginia.

Communications gurus Frank Luntz and Ari Fleischer will talk about “How to communicate principles in today’s media environment.”

The evening keynote speakers are meant to be motivational and speak to GOP contemporary problems: Erik Weihenmayer, a blind man who climbed Mount Everest, will talk about “using adversity to our advantage by working together.” On Thursday evening, Andy Andrews will speak about “sailing above rough seas.”