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| Congressman Bill Shuster |
Small government activists like Matt Kibbe, CEO of FreedomWorks, expect Democrats to freely
spend taxpayers’ money on big government solutions to contemporary problems. They don’t expect, and won’t tolerate,
Republican politicians in Washington pushing for passage of money bills that
attract Democratic support. One such
Republican is Bill Shuster, a Congressman from the 9th District in
Pennsylvania, now is his seventh term. Shuster
chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and is the focus
of conservative criticism for working with Democrats to produce HR 3080 –
authorizing $8.2 billion over a period of ten years to finance Army Corps of
Engineer waterway projects. According
to Shuster the bill actually saves money by cutting red tape and reducing
bureaucratic logjams, replacing an antiquated, inefficient process of
maintaining the nation’s inland waterways and harbors. Additionally the bill saves $12 billion,
according to its backers, by deauthorizing a number of previous projects. The
measure passed Wednesday in the House by a 417 to 3 vote.
The most egregious sin for Tea Party types was Bill Shuster’s
voting ‘ yes’ on the bipartisan plan to
restart the government and raise the current debt ceiling but plans had already
been made to run a more conservative candidate against him in the upcoming 2014
Republican primary. Art Halvorson, a
commercial real estate broker, is the individual with the best chance of
unseating Shuster next year. His views
fall in line with Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s beliefs that the Republicans need
not have caved to the Democrats had they remained united in both the House and
Senate. Halvorson feels the long-term
good of the nation would have been better served by continuing the fight even
if it meant breaking through the debt ceiling.
From his perspective there were sufficient funds to continue paying the
interest on the nation’s debt. Former
Republican Representative Jim Ryun of Kansas has endorsed Halvorson and his
Washington based fund-raising organization, The Madison Project, has already
spent money on TV ads in the district, attacking Shuster as a big-spending
establishment insider that just doesn't get it.
Anticipating a likely primary challenge next year
Congressman Shuster has amassed two million dollars to date in his campaign war
chest. He is not without powerful
friends and he continues to be a magnet for large cash donations from trade
groups and big business. The US Chamber
of Commerce has continuously supported Shuster’s efforts as chairman of the
powerful Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. They are on record as saying he is committed
to the best interest of business, encouraging new opportunities for private
investment and working to decrease government regulation. But what seems good enough for companies like
Boeing Corporation and US Steel are, to Shuster’s detractors, just more of the
same pork-barrel politics Washington has been guilty of ever since Franklin
Roosevelt swept into office in 1932.
The coming contest for the Congressional seat representing
the conservative countryside around Altoona, Pennsylvania is just one of a
number of likely primaries that may well determine the direction of the Republican
Party for years to come. Will it
continue as the party of business, whose economic interests sometimes come in
conflict with the passionate impulses of grassroots Republicans, or will it
purify itself of moderating voices and work vigorously to shift the center of
power back, once again, towards the states?
What is clear is that the Republican Party cannot afford to break into
two parties, both competing on a national level for the same conservative
vote. This is not the first time a
national party has waged a war within its own ranks, between those most
concerned with ideology and others who placed greater importance on
electability. It was Bill Clinton’s 1991
campaign for the presidency that forced a fractured, left-leaning Democratic
Party back toward the center because party leaders came to recognize that a
glass half-full was better than having no glass at all. It is likely that Republicans, prior to 2016,
will come to the same understanding.
