Josh Hawley talks a populist game. Will he pull GOP back on Social Security, Medicaid? | Opinion

This could be Sen. Josh Hawley’s moment — if he wants it to be.

It’s easy to be dismayed by the Missouri Republican. He will forever be defined by his raised-fist salute to the insurrectionist crowd on Jan. 6, 2021, and by the video of him fleeing the Senate chamber that day. The images are indelible, his actions that day both shocking and ridiculous.

But that’s not what makes him interesting.

What’s really intriguing about Hawley is the way he attempts to meld cultural conservatism to a genuinely populist, worker-friendly economic agenda.

You could argue that Donald Trump got there first by appointing pro-life judges while raising tariffs on China. And you could also make the case that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has taken up the mantle by passing his state’s “Don’t Say Gay” law while waging war on Disney and “woke capital.”

Those guys are pretenders, though. Trump’s most significant legislative accomplishment, aside from getting his judges confirmed, was a giant tax cut that mostly benefited the rich. And DeSantis? His second inaugural as Florida governor was bankrolled, in part, by a Disney lobbyist. Sooner or later, most elected Republicans embrace the interests of the wealthy and big business over workers.

However imperfectly, Hawley often attempts to walk the worker-friendly walk.

Back in 2020, he teamed up with noted lefty Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont to push for a second round of stimulus checks to help families get through the pandemic.

More recently, he railed against both the Biden administration and fellow Republicans for ending a railroad worker strike before it even began. Even The Nation magazine, the stalwartly leftist institution, gave “Comrade Josh Hawley” some grudging praise for that — though it noted Hawley has been absent on other pieces of pro-union legislation.

And after a GOP “red wave” failed to materialize in November’s midterm elections, Hawley urged his fellow Republicans to abandon the feed-the-rich-starve-the-poor fiscal policies the party has pursued since the Reagan era.

Party leaders “must convince a critical mass of working-class voters that the GOP truly represents their interests and protects their culture,” the senator wrote a Washington Post commentary. One of the things that means for Republicans: “No more fiddling with Social Security in the guise of ‘entitlement reform.’”

And that’s why — if Hawley is serious — this might be his moment.

Across the Capitol, Hawley’s fellow Republicans in the House of Representatives are planning a fight over raising the nation’s debt ceiling. They’re offering the country a simple choice: Cut federal spending, or default on America’s debts — and possibly tank the global economy in the process.

The spending they want to cut? Social Security and Medicare. Some Republicans are talking about raising the retirement age. Others are talking about imposing income eligibility requirements to “means test” the retirement programs. The details are still a little fuzzy at this point.

Still: That’s a lot of fiddling.

And it’s clear Hawley doesn’t approve.

“That’s dumb,” the senator told Fox News in November. “We need to do everything we can to keep (Social Security and Medicare) solvent for sure. But the idea of fiddling around with them and using those as leverage? I hope nobody’s seriously proposing that.”

That was November. This is January. The debt crisis is now upon us. America hits the ceiling this week — though the Treasury Department can get by with accounting tricks for the next few months.

Which makes this time for Hawley to step forward.

An unnecessary debt ceiling crisis that damages the economy is bad for the American people. An unnecessary debt ceiling crisis resolved with rushed, massive changes to Social Security would enrage them. Neither scenario is great for Republicans.

Missouri’s senator obviously sees the danger. He has a talent for getting on Fox News. If he’s serious about making the GOP a worker-friendly party, he must call his colleagues back from the cliff. It’s a dangerous moment. Where is Josh Hawley’s voice?