Reply #5: Off to a Running Start, How Far Can GOP Go? [View All]

Off to a Running Start, How Far Can GOP Go?

WASHINGTON — Less than three months after starting their new terms, President Bush and GOP leaders have scored a remarkable series of legislative victories, many involving measures that Republicans had been trying to move through Congress for years.

Even while spending a huge amount of time and political capital to keep his Social Security plan alive, Bush and congressional leaders have managed to whisk through business-backed legislation to crack down on class-action lawsuits and consumer bankruptcy filings. The Senate has cleared the way for Bush's plan to expand oil and gas drilling in Alaska. Antiabortion forces have won their first test of strength in the Senate.

And even though the president's effort to overhaul Social Security has gotten off to a halting start, the fact that this once-verboten topic has been thrust to the forefront is a measure of how much the winners of the 2004 elections have redirected the nation's public policy priorities.

The open question is whether their achievements so far mark just the start of what the GOP majority can achieve — or whether their efforts will soon run out of steam. Still on the Republican agenda are more contentious issues, including changes to medical malpractice suit laws and tax laws and, if Bush can persuade lawmakers to consider it, a major and divisive change to Social Security.