Tea Party clashes with GOP establishment over defense
The tension between the Republican establishment and the Tea Party insurgents erupted on the House floor for the first time Wednesday when 110 GOP representatives — mostly freshmen and some longtime conservative gadflies — broke from their leadership and most of their caucus in order to kill a defense contract.
The vote highlighted an establishment-versus-Tea Party split that was glaring during the campaign season, and brought to the fore the uncomfortable question of defense spending. The amendment, killing the contract for a backup engine for the F-35 fighter, passed 233-198 Wednesday, but 130 of the 240 voting Republicans opposed the cut, including House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor. This puts the GOP majority and its leadership at odds with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who doesn’t want the backup engine, and former President George W. Bush, who also tried to kill it.
The Tea Partiers, who had already won some behind-the-scenes skirmishes over earmarks and spending cuts, scored their first floor victory on Wednesday. But the big spenders won the rest of the defense spending votes this week, and, tellingly on each one, a majority of Republicans followed Cantor and Boehner in opposing cuts. For most of the GOP, then, defense spending is a sacred cow.