How to Challenge Yellen -- and Big Government
'I want to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody." That was James Carville, President Clinton's chief political consultant, talking to this newspaper in February 1993.</br></br>When President Clinton backed away from HillaryCare and the rest of his big-government agenda, it wasn't just Democratic losses in the 1994 midterm elections that forced his hand. It was the power of the bond market, a point Mr. Carville understood but Republicans seem to have forgotten.</br></br>If today's Republicans are going to roll back President Obama's massive expansion of government, they will need the muscle of a bond market free from the Federal Reserve's manipulation. History suggests that only the prospect of higher and increasingly painful financing costs chastens committed big spenders. A liberated, and consequently less docile, bond market would not only restrain Washington's profligacy, it would also free the Republican Party to refocus on the big ideas and positive vision that made it a global force in the 1980s.</br></br>No cause unites the Republican Party like the battle for limited government. From Ted Cruz's government shutdown to Paul Ryan's budget compromise with Patty Murray, the political tactics have varied but the goal of limited government has remained the same. The push for limited government even polls well. According to a recent Gallup poll, an overwhelming majority of Republicans, 81%, and a solid majority of Americans, 60%, think the federal government has too much power.</br></br>But despite the public's support and Republicans' herculean efforts, the campaign to pare back government has failed both politically and substantively. The federal government continues to grow while Republicans are increasingly derided for their obsession with spending cuts. Far too many Americans now see the GOP as opposing everything and favoring nothing.