‘What We Need to Be Talking About’: Heritage’s DeMint, Needham on the 2014 Election Results
Melissa Quinn /
As the dust begins to settle after what one commentator called Republicans’ “wall-to-wall shellacking” of Democrats tied to President Obama’s policies, conservatives are focusing on how the election results will affect policymaking in a gridlocked Washington.
Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint and Heritage Action for America CEO Mike Needham explored the consequences of Tuesday’s midterm elections in an on-camera, online discussion yesterday with The Daily Signal’s Genevieve Wood.
Needham agreed with DeMint, a former Republican senator from South Carolina, that the results were a clear message from Main Street USA that Washington needs to address the issues of pressing concern to everyday Americans.
“When you look around the country, there’s tremendous frustration with Washington,” Needham said, adding:
It’s a town that works well if you’re part of the ruling class, if you live inside of the Beltway. But for real Americans out there who are struggling, you don’t feel like you’re getting lots of solutions from Washington, and I think that’s a lot of what animated last night.
Republicans swept the U.S. Senate, netting seven seats to regain control of the chamber. They could add at least two more as races in Alaska, Louisiana and Virginia are settled.
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In the House, Republicans appeared to have netted at least 13 seats, boosting their majority to 247 seats in the next Congress.
The overwhelming majority of GOP candidates who won, Needham said, focused on a few central themes: repealing the Affordable Care Act, expanding energy exploration and — with the exception of one — opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants.
During a press conference yesterday at the White House, President Obama said he looked forward to working with Republicans in Congress to make the country stronger. However, he didn’t shy away from threatening to take executive actions on issues on which they don’t agree — specifically to move millions of illegal immigrants toward citizenship.
“It’s an incredible statement: ‘I’m going to pass my lawless executive amnesty unless you guys pass the legislation that 17 out of the 18 Republican Senate candidates ran against,’” Needham said. “It’s the type of arrogance that we see out of this White House, and Americans are sick of it.”
Instead of focusing on such issues that largely are unpopular, Needham and DeMint said Congress should focus on policies that make life easier for Americans.
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Median income — just over $52,000 — remains the same as it was on the last day of Ronald Reagan’s presidency, yet the cost of living has grown exponentially. Beef costs $4 per pound, gas is more expensive and parents are struggling to figure out how they’re going to pay for their children’s education, Needham said.
Addressing such concerns, the head of Heritage’s advocacy arm said, warrants a Congress that will find solutions to real problems, instead of a Congress that treats them as “some sort of game to turn into 30-second TV ads.”
DeMint agreed:
What we do need to address [is] the income stagnation, the middle, hard-working, tax-paying Americans feel like they’ve been left out of any recovery that’s taken place, and there’s some good policy ideas that can get this moving in the right direction. That’s what we need to be talking about.
Though it has been only two days since voters flipped the balance of power in the Senate, there already is growing speculation about what the Republican presidential field for 2016 will look like.
Needham said he is confident an impressive lineup of governors and senators will make a White House run, and civil discourse will set an appropriate stage:
Having a movement that has the self-confidence to debate different ideas, to figure out where we’re coming from is going to show the best of conservatism and really will make the sales pitch to the American people.
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