Americans rejected liberal government on all levels this week, but none may be more important than the governors races, but says Fred Barnes, co-founder and executive editor of The Weekly Standard.
"Republicans won all of the governorships. They won in Wisconsin, they won in Illinois, they won in Texas, they won in Florida, Indiana, they won in Ohio, they won a couple in New England," Barnes said Wednesday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
Newsmax TV.
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"Paul LaPage, the conservative governor of Maine, was said to be a guy who could never get over say about 39 or 40 percent of the vote. Well, he got 48 or 49 and he was re-elected.
"It really was a huge Republican election, but it was also a very ideological election that was rejecting liberal government and everything that goes with it from top to bottom all the way down to the state legislative bodies.
Barnes — author of
"The Rebel in Chief: Inside the Bold and Controversial Presidency of George W. Bush," published by Three Rivers Press — said Republicans should kick off their new power by sending the Keystone pipeline bill for President Barack Obama to sign.
"It's a yes or down decision for the president. On the first day, you know, send him a bill saying that the Keystone Pipeline should be approved immediately and the president says yes or no," he said.
"If he says no, which he indicated today that he probably would, it would be hard for the president. It would be certainly unpopular. He talks about the energy issue and he cares about that, it's lowering gas prices, well this would do a lot more of that anyway."
Barnes said the Affordable Care Act is another target.
"Wait until a month or two when you actually have an Obamacare alternative. [Rep.] Paul Ryan mentioned this last night," he said.
"The Republicans practically have one anyway. There's so many people here in Washington, conservative policy people, who have plans of their own and … you'd have a great alternative, a free market-oriented bill that wouldn't have an individual mandate among other things.
"At some point, you're going to have to say, Mr. President, we're not going to let you spend all this money on this or that and you have to choose your things wisely."