Is GOP Leadership In Congress Dividing Conservatives?

. . . Except for Selling Out Your Principles & Values

Dr. Bill Smith, Editor: Yes, it is indeed bad in these times of fiscal distress, concerns over the declining economy, rising debt, pending loss of income and jobs, loss of freedom and liberty, and no foreseeable recovery under the continuance of the Obama administration for another four years. It appears to some that the Alinsky method is alive and tearing at the very fabric of the soul of America.

It also appears that some elected Republican leaders may be more concerned about political territory and consolidating .  It even appears some leaders would prefer that both social and even staunch fiscal conservatives would "get out of the boat" and least "shut up."

It's been said, "It is just four more years and we can still recover," especially if the House Republicans remain united. Unfortunately, the word is out from reputable sources that the House GOP leadership may be attempting to shed, corral, or at least silence the voices and influence of its more conservative members. Thus sending signals of either compromise to its caucus members or a move towards a moderation of conservative values and principles verses taking rock solid conservative stands on national issues before Congress.

Below are current sources which support my concern. However,  don't  miss the "ray of hope" by over 100 conservative national leaders identified at the end.

The first is via Thomson/Reuters and shared by NewsMax promoting the headline GOP Infighting, Tea Party 'Purges' Break Out over Fiscal Cliff."Republicans in the U.S. Congress attacked each other on Tuesday over their leadership's "fiscal cliff" offer . . . In only a matter of hours on Tuesday, conservatives from all around Washington blasted Boehner's plan:

• Sen. Jim DeMint, a South Carolinian with a following among small-government conservatives, lashed out at House Speaker John Boehner, saying his $2.2 trillion deficit plan would cost jobs and mushroom the debt.
• Two first-term Republican Tea Party stalwarts - Tim Huelskamp of Kansas and Justin Amash of Michigan - were removed by party leadership from the powerful budget committee in what Huelskamp called "a vindictive move."
• A top House conservative, Jim Jordan of Ohio, was scheduled to unveil his own fiscal cliff plan on Tuesday but has backed off in the wake of Boehner's offer to President Obama.
• "The president's proposal and Speaker Boehner's counteroffer fail to seriously deal with the reality of the problems facing the nation," said Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, the advocacy group partially backed by billionaires David and Charles Koch. "Conservatives are looking for a leader to fight against tax increases, to push back against wasteful government spending, and address the fiscal challenges in a bold way. Sadly, this plan leaves conservatives wanting."
. . ."

Second were remarks expressed by two conservative Representative at the weekly Heritage Foundation Bloggers Briefing. Lachlan Markay of Heritage Investigates summarized the situation as Huelskamp, Amash Say House Leadership “Punished” Dissent.A pair of the House of Representatives’ most conservative members said Tuesday that they were blindsided by news that they would be removed from key committees during the upcoming Congress.

Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) said House leadership didn’t even inform him of the decision. “I had to read it in the newspapers,” he told a crowd at Heritage’s Bloggers Briefing. (Watch the full event above.)

Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) claimed that leadership reneged on an agreement with House freshman inked in 2010. Under the deal, Huelskamp said, any member would be free to “vote their conscience and their district” as long as they agreed to fund-raise for Republican candidates and inform leadership of their votes prior to casting them.

But according to Huelskamp, Republican members were ranked according to their votes during the 112th Congress in closed-door meetings. “If you didn’t get a high enough score,” he claimed, citing “multiple sources,” members were “punished.”

It sends a message, Huelskamp added, that “dissent will not be tolerated.”

Amash, who says he voted with leadership 95% of the time, called the committee assignments “a slap in the face to all young people who are thinking of becoming Republicans.”

Both congressmen painted the move as an ongoing trend of hostility towards more conservative members of the Republican caucus. Huelskamp tied it to rule-changes at the Republican National Convention that gave the national committee veto power over state delegates.

While the committee assignments have obvious political implications, they will be felt most in the policy arena, Huelskamp said. “This doesn’t hurt you at home,” he said, but it may deal a blow to conservative policy proposals on Capitol Hill.

He noted that many members were removed from committees dealing with issues in which those members have expertise Huelskamp himself is a former farmer, but was removed from the Agriculture Committee. He cited Rep. Dave Schweikert (R-AZ) as well, who was booted from the Finance Committee despite his business background.Video of Reps. Tim Huelskamp, Justin Amash at The Bloggers Briefing

The following are comments by Nathaniel Ward on My Heritage titled GOP Fiscal Cliff Plan a ‘Categorical, Preemptive CapitulationOn initial examination, the House Republicans’ counter-offer to address the looming “fiscal cliff” tax hikes and spending cuts “appears little more than categorical, preemptive capitulation,” Heritage Foundation experts Alison Fraser and J.D. Foster argue.

First, the proposal fails to address the real source of our nation’s fiscal crisis: massive overspending, especially on rapidly-expanding entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

“Beyond disappointing, the House Republican counteroffer appears at best to suggest incremental tweaks to these programs,” Fraser and Foster write. “Without real entitlement reform—not just spending cuts—we will never fix the underlying problem.”

Second, the program includes:"An anti-tax reform program of reductions in the availability of certain deductions and exemptions—without offsetting reductions in rates. While preferable in general to raising tax rates, this proposal largely dooms future efforts at tax reform based on the sound principle of broadening the tax base to lower the rates. Instead, this proposal would broaden the base, not to lower rates, but to raise revenues. So much for improved economic growth.
While the GOP plan does profess its continued support for the principled budget the House passed this year, Fraser and Foster deem it “a dud. It is utterly unacceptable. It is bad policy, bad economics, and, if we may say so, highly questionable as a negotiating tactic.”Conservative should not loose hope. Morton Blackwell has detailed on RedState an Open Letter to U.S. House and Senate Republicans signed by him and over a hundred leading conservatives voices in America. In summary, the letter called for Republicans to stand firm.“It’s in the interest of the country and in your personal interest for you to use the power you unquestionably have now to stand firm and not surrender your conservative principles, no matter how loud the clamor of people whose central interests is to advance the left’s agenda."

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