It’s so much easier to be in the opposition than to be in the majority in some ways. You don’t actually have to do anything but you can relentlessly criticize, second-guess and hyperventilate without much consequence. Spending and the budget has been one place where the GOP opposition has been relentlessly attacking. Well now the GOP has a burden to help govern and the rifts between the establishment and the far right are already starting to show. The GOP no longer can pat its base on the head and ignore them until election time, their base demands results. A big argument has opened between far right Senators DeMint and Coburn with Iowa’s Chuck Grassley over ethanol subsidies.
As I reported here yesterday, DeMint and Coburn, two leading conservatives, are calling on fellow Republicans to support letting the subidies expire as a way to prove the GOP is serious about reining in government spending. Just as the battle over earmarks did, ethanol subsidies could put GOP Senators who have supported them in the past — such as Grassley and Orrin Hatch — in an awkward spot, driving a wedge between them and conservatives who want a harder line on spending.
Now Grassley has responded to our story, firing off an angry Tweet at DeMint and Coburn, asking them rhetorically if they’re also willing to back the expiration of tax subsidies for the oil and gas industry:
WashPost reports 2 of my colleagues want sunset ethanol tax credit R they ready sunset tax subsidies oilANDgas enjoys?
Coburn, however, appears ready to accept Grassley’s challenge. His spokesman, John Hart, emails a response:
“Every aspect of the federal budget should be reviewed. Nothing should be off the table. Congress has to focus on the national interest, not the parochial politics of the past.”
So could Republicans actually end subsidies for corn ethanol, oil and gas? I guess I would be surprised if it really happened but DeMint beat McConnell on earmarks so don’t count him out.
This rift really does expose some of the trouble Republicans are going to have with their new coalition. Republicans were supported by business groups. Are they really going to bite the hand that feeds them by cutting off their government welfare program? The GOP also benefits from support from rural voters who also benefit from corn ethanol subsidies. Does the GOP want to anger them too? I love the irony that it could be Republicans that end the corporate welfare system that they championed.
Who’d have thought that the GOP would make environmental groups so happy?