Rare News Desk
In the lead-up to last month’s shutdown, we heard a lot about and from Ted Cruz. But there was another GOP senator, Mike Lee of Utah, who was also championing the same approach. While Cruz has been noticeably quieter since the “defund Obamacare” strategy broke down, Lee gave a speech last week outlining a four-pronged path forward for Republicans as they try to win over voters. The Weekly Standard’s Matthew Continetti reports on it:
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“He announced four specific proposals — to aid families raising kids, facing the challenge of balancing work life and home life, spending too much time sitting in gridlock, and struggling to afford a college education. All four are worthy of consideration. His tax plan would simplify and reduce rates and offer a $2,500 per-child credit (up from $1,000 today) that would offset both income and payroll taxes. His reform of labor laws would allow employees who work overtime to take comp time or flex time in lieu of pay — an option currently available to federal workers but not to the rest of us. His transportation bill would lower the federal gas tax and devolve power to the states and localities. And his education proposal would create a new optional system of accreditation: ‘States could accredit online courses, or hybrid models with elements on and off campus.’ Parents and students would have more flexibility. They’d also have more choices.
“Lee is just one of several Republican politicians rethinking the GOP economic agenda. Along with former senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, and Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, he’s giving renewed attention to the interests of the American middle class, of the families who struggle in the Obama economy but see the national GOP as equally out of touch. These labor Republicans want to apply conservative principles to the economic crisis of our time: low growth, stagnant wages, and social immobility. They may not be numerous enough to form a caucus. But give them time.
“What the labor Republicans share is a respect for work. ‘Work for able-bodied adults is not a necessary evil,’ Lee said, ‘but an essential pathway to personal happiness.’ A labor Republican opposes the Senate immigration bill not only because it’s a bureaucratic monstrosity, but also because an influx of cheap labor would decrease low-skilled wages. A labor Republican is well disposed to cuts in the payroll tax rate, or to an expanded child tax credit, because he thinks the GOP ought to do something for married couples with children. A labor Republican is not reluctant to embrace proposals to reduce the size and power of the Wall Street banks. Nor is he reluctant to discuss the social and cultural background — disintegrating families, radical abortion laws, legitimation of drugs and pornography — to economic malaise.”
If you think that sounds more or less like the opposite of what the national GOP has been talking about, you’re right. The national GOP’s approach is more akin to adopting a “me too,” Democrat-lite stance on issues like immigration, and then … figure out the rest afterward.
Lee’s program, while too limited for a national campaign (either for him running for president or congressional Republicans seeking full control of Congress in next year’s midterms), instead seems to operate on the assumption “the rest” is the real priority if the GOP is to get back to winning elections. Whether you agree with his specific proposals or not, that premise is correct.
In the end, “labor Republicans” sound a lot like Reagan Democrats. But Lee is explicitly challenging the notion of simply dusting off the rest of the Reagan agenda: “Instead of emulating that generation,” Lee said, “too many Republicans today mimic them — still advocating policies from a bygone age.”
There is no reason to believe Reagan would propose the very same solutions to today’s problems that he pitched for those America faced 33 years ago. That doesn’t mean he’d be more of a Democrat; it means he’d be a Republican focused on today. That is how today’s GOP should emulate his generation.
An earlier version of this article ran at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Story here.
