He wrote, on the stakes, “The election this year is about much
more than health care, or energy policy, or even the security of our country.
Will we repeal TARP and unwind the vast amounts of government spending and
mandates that distorts the innovation and free enterprise in our financial
services industry, our health care system, our car companies, and our energy
sector? Will we take meaningful steps to cut hundreds of billions in federal
spending, so we can ratchet back the deficit spending and the ballooning $12
trillion national debt that we owe to creditors like China and the Middle East?”
The Young Guns did spur a stunning victory in the midterms,
giving Republicans a majority in the House with historic gains and a freshman
class 87 strong. John Boehner became the speaker, Cantor the majority leader,
McCarthy the majority whip, and Ryan the chair of the Budget Committee. But the
promise made by the Young Guns to their recruits that there would an immediate
and dramatic cut in federal spending was quashed as unrealistic right after the
newcomers arrived by none other than Ryan, enraging the hard-liners. The
expectation that once the new members came to Congress they could be co-opted
did not pan out.
And the desire by Cantor to use the debt ceiling as a hostage
to force Barack Obama to accept huge cuts and changes in his programs, seized
upon by the Tea Party members, did not work; on the verge of default, a
last-minute deal was brokered with Obama by Boehner without any help from his
majority leader or whip, and to the disappointment of the Tea Party
legislators.