Pushing Bush Right
Conservatives gear up to lobby for their presidential priorities
Sheryl Henderson Blunt | posted 3/05/2001 12:00AM
With republicans resident in the White House and narrowly in control in the House and Senate, both social and economic conservatives have drafted a stunningly long list of legislative priorities. The booklet Priorities for the President, produced by the conservative Heritage Foundation, runs more than 350 pages. The Family Research Council, in its pamphlet Building the Family, Building the Republic, puts forward 19 different legislative proposals for the 107th Congress, ranging from adoption tax credits to the Scouts' Honor Act.
In Washington at the start of 2001, no one was heard chanting the conservative mantra, "Big government is dead." President Bush, on his first day on the job, swiftly earned conservative praise and liberal condemnation by reversing a Clinton-era policy providing federal funds for abortion counseling overseas. The move coincided with the 28th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision.
In a presidential message read aloud by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., Bush told thousands of prolife demonstrators in Washington, "We share a great goal: to work toward a day when every child is welcomed in life and protected in law. We know this will not come easily, or all at once. But the goal leads us onward: to build a culture of life, affirming that every person, at every stage and season of life, is created equal in God's image."
Advancing the agenda
But Democrats promise they are not going to let GOP conservatives dictate the nation's legislative agenda, saying that Bush's clouded election has galvanized them to combat "right-wing" proposals. Meanwhile, some rank-and-file Democrats as well as moderate Republicans hint that a "too conservative" agenda could undermine Bush's efforts at bipartisan cooperation on his signature campaign issues of education reform, prescription-drug coverage for the elderly, and across-the-board tax cuts, which many Democrats support. With an evenly divided Senate and only a six-vote Republican majority in the House, the support of moderates is considered crucial to passing significant new laws.
"As long as the administration works from the center to the right and not from the right to the center, I think we will do well," said Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., a leading House moderate. "But if the agenda will be taking issues like trying to deny a woman's right to choose and making that law, then we'll have a big explosion."
True to his campaign pledge, Bush wasted no time presenting Congress with an ambitious education reform plan that he says will inject accountability and superior performance. In what conservatives see as a crucial test of resolve, the President has proposed giving vouchers to parents whose children attend consistently failing schools. Parents could use the cash—up to $1,500 per student per year—to send their children to the private or parochial schools of their choice.
Opponents say the plan would only redirect money away from the most needy schools to privately funded, discriminatory religious schools. Democrats, led by teachers unions, meanwhile have warned Bush that remaining rigid on vouchers could sink his efforts for education reform. But a number of religious conservatives, incensed over Democrats' treatment of Attorney General John Ashcroft during his confirmation hearings, say they have no plans to tone down their agenda.
"The left-wing uproar over John Ashcroft put an end to the bipartisan charade," said Tom Minnery, vice president of public policy for James Dobson's Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs. "What [liberals] are saying is, 'We want our agenda, not yours.' "
March 5 2001, Vol. 45, No. 4
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