House Rule

„Boehner faces the same dilemma that establishment Republicans faced in the primary season, when candidates considered more viable in the general election were often pushed aside by purists. He knows what the base wants—an immediate, sustained effort to undo the entire Obama agenda. But the broader public, especially independents, might be repulsed by a reign of what would almost certainly be portrayed as radical Republicanism. That is why Boehner has avoided showcasing a symbolic H.R.1—the first bill that will be passed by the next Congress. If it were a full repeal of health care, the country might see it as partisan vengeance; if it were anything else, the base would begin to grumble about the squishes running the Party.

Eventually, though, the question will come down to health care. One approach is to hold committee hearings that would expose the health-care law to a trial by oversight, so thoroughly revealing its flaws that Republicans could try for full repeal near the end of the session. Meanwhile, there would be revisions around the margins—a repeal, for example, of the much reviled requirement, tucked into the health-care bill, that businesses file 1099 forms for every contractual transaction over six hundred dollars. This is the approach that Boehner is believed to favor. The Tea Partiers want full repeal, now. Representative Michele Bachmann, of Minnesota, a stalwart of the Tea Party caucus, told the conservative news outlet CNS last week, »If they—the Party leaders—decide they’re going to cave, or go weak in the knees, you will see members of Congress that will stand up against our leadership, because we’re going to stand with the people on this issue.«

One possible course for Boehner is to continue his recent parroting of Tea Party rhetoric, while working to adjust the new members, over time, to the realities of their limited legislative power, and of the risk in seeming too radical. He could talk of repealing »this monstrosity,« and of having »a lot of tricks up our sleeves,« knowing that even starving the health law of funds will be difficult to achieve legislatively, since Obama will have to sign funding bills.”