January 14, 2015

How Republicans Can Outmaneuver The Veto President

By LEWIS K. UHLER AND PETER J. FERRARA
INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

The Republican landslide in the last election empowers the GOP to go on the offensive against the now greatly weakened lame duck, President Obama.
With complete control of Congress, Republicans can send him bill after bill with broad popular support reflecting their policy preferences, leaving him no option but to go along, or take very public, unpopular stands reflecting his consistently counterproductive, ideological extremism.
Little appreciated inside the media echo chamber is the impact of November's historic Democratic defeat on Obama's standing within his party.
On many issues, Republicans will now be joined by Democrats glad to distance themselves from the now-cratering former shooting star. On some issues, this may lead to veto overrides.
Issue No. 1 — the Keystone XL pipeline — has already been identified by the Republican congressional leadership. The former base of the Democrat Party — blue-collar workers and their families — are identifying with Republicans on this issue. Even Democrat incumbents from blue states can't afford to alienate these voters.
Further political earthquake issues relate to the president's crown jewel — ObamaCare. Republicans should pass legislation to repeal Obama's foolish individual mandate, which even he campaigned against in 2008. It is effectively a tax on the middle class and working people, and Republicans should frame it as such.
The Republican House last week passed a fix to the 30-hour workweek imposed on many as a result of Obama-Care, raising the threshold for the employer mandate to apply to 40 hours. The White House says that will cause many more workers to lose hours, as employers cut back more full-time workers to 39 hours, for which Democrats will blame Republicans.
Republicans should be more aggressive and pass repeal of the entire employer mandate, which is a massively counterproductive tax on jobs. That would fix the 30-hour workweek problem entirely as well.
Republicans should not hold back on any of these popular issues because of an Obama veto threat, or even the threat of a Senate Democratic filibuster. Force the president and his Democrats to take difficult votes and public stands against the people. See how long they're willing to keep that up.
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Moreover, Republicans in both the House and Senate can now pass budgets that would balance the federal budget within 10 years or less! That would greatly firm up the GOP's Tea Party base and enjoy broad, bipartisan popularity. Obama has no power to veto those budget resolutions.
Such Republican budgets may draw dozens of Democrat votes, making them the most bipartisan budgets in U.S. history. Would Obama veto appropriation bills balancing the budget because they don't spend enough?
Tax reform has become another populist Republican issue. House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan has proposed a highly popular framework for tax reform, with a 10% federal income-tax rate applying up to $100,000 a year and 25% above that.
The great majority of families, and the entire middle class, would face only a 10% income-tax rate. Obama and the Democratic Party would be hard-pressed to oppose this.
Corporate tax reform can be another blue-collar jobs issue. Ryan now favors a 25% federal corporate rate, down from 35%. But he would enjoy political support to go lower, especially with dynamic scoring that the House leadership has adopted.
There is potentially broad bipartisan support on this issue too. Quite possibly, we could end Obama's Age of Aquarius with lower federal income-tax rates than during the Reagan era!
Republicans should also pass the Regulations of the Executive In Need of Scrutiny Act. That would require every federal regulation with an effect on the economy of more than $100 million a year to get congressional approval. This would short-circuit Obama's abuse of his "pen and his phone" to end-run Congress' authority.
Republicans should marry this with a sunset on all existing regulations, requiring them to be readopted over time, subjecting them to such mandatory congressional approval. If they can enact this before EPA rules on "global warming" are finalized, that would block another abuse of power.
Republicans should not be shy about re-enacting the hundreds of pro-jobs, pro-growth bills they passed in the House last Congress, without heed to Obama's veto threats. Such vetoes would only confirm the real source of Washington gridlock — President "No" and "progressive" Democrats.
• Uhler is chairman of the National Tax Limitation Foundation. Ferrara is a foundation senior fellow.