does “the base” prefer social issues to budget cuts?

Are social issues being used as a “cover” by Republican legislators who seek to back away from painful fiscal conservatism?

An intriguing article in Michigan Capitol Confidential (“Are Reluctant Reformers in Republican Ranks Seeking Cover Behind Social Issues?”) offers evidence that they are, and cites the case of a state senator who backed away from the governor’s proposed budget cuts while switching gears to abortion.

Snyder has been rapidly advancing a somewhat fiscally-conservative agenda on budgets, taxes and public employee union reform during his first six months. This has been appreciated by his party’s fiscally conservative base and tea party supporters. But back in Lansing, not all of the Republicans have been on board with those votes, leaving them open to the dreaded charge of being tagged as “Republicans in Name Only.” So rather than change their tune on these conservative fiscal issues, some GOP senators might be trying to get the governor to change the songbook over to conservative social issues instead, and hope that their fiscally conservative supporters back home remain faithful and forget about the apostasy on public unions and government spending votes.

Consider the case of GOP Sen. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge.

Despite the “sworn to secrecy” rules of closed-door GOP Senate caucus meetings, the MIRS Capitol Capsule daily newsletter — where Skubick is also a reporter — revealed the insights of a witness in the room who identified Jones as the specific lawmaker who pressed the governor on June 28 about advancing “Right to Life” issues that would “appeal to the base.” MIRS reports that the governor did not dismiss the social issue concerns, but left no doubt where his energy would remain.

Jones and other Republicans voted with the Democrats:

In the end, the governor and GOP lawmakers came to an agreement that did cut K-12 spending, but by less than he had asked for and that still left the foundation allowance growth higher than the rate of inflation over its 17-year history. Democrats remained united in opposition to even this more modest reduction.

Likewise, nine Republicans broke the spending ranks and joined the Democrats in voting against this budget: four in the House and five in the Senate. Sen. Jones was among them.

Jones’ thinking about what would most “appeal to the base” intrigues me.

It remains to be seen whether this call for social issue proposals that “appeal to the base” of the GOP is indeed being motivated by a desire from some Republicans to mitigate their ambiguous records regarding the fiscal reforms. And if this is true, it’s not clear that the “return to fiscal sanity” wing, represented by the tea party, would be so easily distracted.

I’m not sure who constitutes the base, but only 15% of Republicans rank social issues as their chief concern.

Social issues are not spelled out, but I think it’s fair to assume that abortion and gay marriage are predominant. If we look at how the overall country ranks issues in terms of importance, abortion and gay marriage are all the way at the bottom of the chart.

No wonder they’re so handy to deploy.