Representative Hensarling is a true-blue conservative – on social issues, fiscal issues, and any other issue – and he will co-chair the debt 'super committee' along with Sen. Patty Murray (D) of Washington. He formerly led the Republican Study Committee in the House, which includes the most conservative members of Congress and helps to set Republican policy. But unlike the current RSC chair, Rep. Jim Jordan (R) of Ohio, he is not inclined to risk the appearance of a break with GOP leaders. Now he is the fourth-ranking Republican in the House.
Hensarling served on President Obama's bipartisan deficit reduction commission, led by Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, which in December 2010 produced a blueprint to shrink the budget gap over the next 10 years and bring down the national debt. That plan was what Mr. Obama would call a "balanced approach" to deficit reduction, including both spending cuts and revenue increases, and Hensarling in the end voted against it. His main objection was that the plan did not do enough to guarantee cuts in spending, especially for Medicare, even as it required higher taxes.
Whereas many Republican lawmakers deemed it important to bail out America's stressed financial institutions at the onset of the Great Recession, Hensarling did not. He was not convinced by the "too big to fail" argument, and stuck to his principles that government should not intervene in private industry – even to save it.
It may have been a shrewd move to make Hersarling co-chairman of the super committee. He will have an obligation to produce something credible, and, with his conservative credentials, he may be able to lead other conservative House Republicans who otherwise might not trust the outcome – assuming he himself can get on board with the final product.
