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Win
Smith of Lompoc, CA asks:
With the new GOP leadership, will I see a change in these issues? (1)
Republican candidates are usually anti-choice, (2) Republican leaders
spend as much, if not more, than democrats, and (3) Republican policy
is almost always more destructive to the environment
John
Pitney responds:
With a smaller procedural majority, congressional Republicans are less
likely to attach abortion provisions to bills dealing with other issues.
Nevertheless, they will remain basically pro-life -- which is not necessarily
a losing position. According to a New York Times survey earlier this
year, public support for legal abortion plunges from 61 percent if it
takes place in the first three months of a pregnancy to only 15 percent
in the second three months. By carefully shifting the focus to specific
topics such as partial-birth abortion, pro-life Republicans can shift
the debate to more favorable ground.
On federal spending, the GOP did indeed have a bad day when it approved
a massive pork-barrel highway bill. (For a whimsical calculation, consider
the current price of boneless pork: $3.39 a pound. At that rate, the
$218 billion highway measure amounts to 237 pounds for every man, woman,
and child in America.) On the other hand, discretionary spending has
fallen from 7.9 percent of gross domestic product in fiscal 1994 to
6.4 percent today. The GOP leaders must be doing something right. And
if Speaker-designate Livingston gets Social Security out of the picture,
the budget calculation will become less rosy, thus creating more pressure
for further spending cuts.
On the environment, think tanks such as the Competitive Enterprise
Institute, the Pacific Research Institute, and the Reason Foundation
have made a compelling case that marketplace incentives can better protect
the air and water than old-style bureaucratic controls. Republicans
have to do a much more skillful job at conveying these ideas to the
general public.
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