Republicans should take note of recent polling data from Rasmussen Reports, consistently one of the most accurate polling firms in the nation. According to a Rasmussen poll released on January 23, 59% of U.S. voters are concerned that President Obama and Congress will increase government spending too much over the next one to two years. Moreover, nearly half of voters (49%) say Obama is more liberal than they are.

A few weeks back, Jon Henke highlighted the challenges Republicans face in opposing Obama and Democrats:

• If they oppose the bill and it fails, they will be blamed (fairly or not) for any economic problems.
• If they support the bill and it passes, they will share the blame for the enormous costs it will entail.
• If they oppose the bill and it passes, the lack of policy leverage would leave the bill much worse than if they had forced potentially valuable compromises (e.g., sunset provisions and exit strategies).

Fred Barnes argues that the Republicans’ best weapon “is Obama himself” — that Republicans would be wise to take advantage of the President’s popularity by framing how out of touch the Democratic Congress is with the President’s agenda. This seems to be a wise approach to dealing with a difficult situation. In addition, Republicans in Congress clearly would be smart to frame their actions in terms of limiting the Democrats’ desire for endless and reckless spending, since a large percentage of the public is concerned about this sort of spending.

The worst thing that Republicans could do is to cave in to the President and his allies in Congress. They must continue to object to excessive spending and increased government and differentiate themselves by standing up for the core Republican values of limited government, personal liberty, and freedom for which our party stands. They must keep up the fight!

Last 5 posts by Aaron Marks

• Onward and Upward: Building a Sustainable Majority - January 22nd, 2010
• Dear Young Voters: This Is What You Get When You Don't Vote - December 1st, 2009
• The Youth Vote and the 2009 Elections - November 6th, 2009
• The Best of the Post-2009 Election Spin - November 5th, 2009
• Introducing NextGenGOP Executive Director James Kane - October 20th, 2009