republican parties' power

moderates:

  • republican governance group

  • main street caucus (largest group as of 2023)

  • lisa murkowski n susan collins v reluctant to go with trump’s conservative agenda

fiscal conservatives:

  • pushes idea of balanced budget politics n started under newt gingrich’s leadership

  • want govt to spend less, tax less n increase deregulation

  • republican study committee n freedom caucus are biggest groups here

    • freedom caucus are particularly unwilling to compromise ie refusing to back kevin mccarthy for Speaker of the House n ending his tenure after 1 year. only 8 repubs were able to do so

social conservatives:

  • moral policy with conservative christian values @heart of decisions

  • religious right

are moderate republicans powerful?

yes:

no:

they can compromise with the Dems n water down progressive Democrat policies in exchange for moderate Repub support

the Repub part has shifted to the right since the 1990s n decline of moderates. fiscal Conservatism dominates the party

given Republicans had a small majority in the Senate during the time of Trump, moderates were very successful in blocking some Con policies

  • eg Sen Susan Collins was instrumental in blocking the repeal of the Affordable Care Act

the Trump Presidency marked a further decline in the power of moderates. trump generated high levels of loyalty - so socially conservative policies have dominated party thinking

are fiscal conservatives powerful?

yes:

no:

it is the dominant force in the Repub party in recent years n has succeeded in reducing taxes from 39% to 21% inc corp tax under Trump

  • eg deregulation of economy with major reduction in environmental regulations was a big success under trump

  • almost 80% of Repubs belong to the Repub study committee

fiscal conservatives are less likely to be influential overall during Democratic presidencies, esp if Dems are in the majority across the Houses

fiscal conservatives have advantage of wanting to block new proposals for federal expenditure n welfare - easier to block than produce new legislation. this has contributed to gridlock n federal shutdown

all Repubs opposed Biden’s ‘inflation reduction act’ but major increases in expenditure n taxes on the wealthy would be particularly disliked

covid19 n global warming challenge the thinking of Fiscal Conservatives as these require major govt intervention

trump n biden both put forward policies that regulated business n increased the amount of welfare - fiscal conservatives did not like these