How Republicans Undercut Their Own Pro-Police Message

WASHINGTON – House Republicans are using National Police Week to bash Democrats for allegedly pushing to “defund the police,” but Republicans themselves have repeatedly proposed funding cuts for police.

The Republican Study Committee, a policy group counting most House Republicans as members, puts out an annual budget proposal that calls for cutting the federal government’s main grant program for local police departments.

“Conservatives support our men and women [in] blue but should question whether the government should involve itself in state and local law enforcement, even if it is only a matter of funding,” this year’s Republican Study Committee budget says.

The Community Oriented Policing Services program is small, amounting to a fraction of a percent of the federal budget and supporting a tiny portion of police department personnel nationwide. But the proposed cut suggests Republican support for state and local law enforcement is mostly a cultural affinity and political wedge issue that doesn’t trump their general dislike of government.

On Wednesday, during a news conference with local police officials from around the country, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), a former chairman of the Republican Study Committee, said he was not familiar with the group’s latest budget, which is meant to showcase policy aspirations, not something that will get an actual vote on the House floor.

“I haven’t looked into the details of the RSC budget,” Johnson said in response to a question from HuffPost. “There’s lots of nuances. They also plus-up other areas where you support law enforcement, because that’s the central theme of what we believe, as part of our worldview, as part of our party platform.”

When Johnson chaired the