Milbank: Without an agenda, victorious GOP set up for chaos

It was enough, electorally, for Republicans to say they were against whatever President Barack Obama was for. Preliminary exit polls found that 33 percent of voters were registering displeasure with Obama, versus 19 percent who were expressing support.

But now comes the hard part. Because Republicans didn’t run on an agenda other than antipathy toward all things Obama, they created a policy vacuum — and it’s about to be filled by a swirl of competing, and contradictory, proposals. Republicans find themselves with neither a consensus program nor a clear hierarchy among congressional leaders, setting themselves up for chaos, if not outright fratricide.

Congressional leaders will be pulled in opposite directions by would-be presidential contender Ted Cruz of Texas and his expanded band of Senate ideologues (who would like to abolish the IRS, the EPA and the Education Department, chip away at banking regulations, and hold umpteen more votes on eliminating Obamacare) and by the large number of vulnerable Republicans who will be on the ballot in 2016 (and would like to see the next Congress achieve tangible progress).

The party without a plan

Republicans in 2014 decided to forego a 1994-style Contract with America or 2010 Pledge to America. The closest they came to a unified agenda was a list of bromides proffered by Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus. Among the bold stands: “our veterans have earned our respect” and “the best anti-poverty program is a strong family and a good job.”

This gives no advantage to either side in the Republicans’ internecine struggle. On one side will be Cruz, who told The Washington Post this week that the first order of business for a GOP Senate should be launching more hearings into Obama’s “abuse of power.” He’s also pushing an effort to use parliamentary maneuvers to repeal Obamacare with a simple majority — the sort of provocation that would quickly return Washington to government-shutdown crises. Cruz, in a USA Today opinion piece, also said he wants to pursue a flat tax, kill the Export-Import Bank, audit the Fed, and block comprehensive immigration reform.

On the opposite side is Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, a George W. Bush administration veteran who wants to “come to the table” with Obama on wide-ranging energy legislation, free-trade deals, bipartisan tax reform, and a return to responsible budgeting rather than stopgap spending bills. For this to happen, Portman notes in National Review, “all we are missing is leadership.”

Without leadership, it’s every Republican for himself. Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Rand Paul of Kentucky have dueling tax plans. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, reports Politico’s Jake Sherman, “seems willing to pass small-bore bills on issues ranging from energy to health care to taxes.” By contrast, Heritage Action, which influences congressional conservatives, wants the opposite: Republicans should “focus on the big things” such as repealing Obamacare, rather than finding common ground on spending bills.

That’s the consequence of an agenda-free campaign: A majority without a mission.