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Conservatives signature Washington gathering moved into full swing Thursday with calls from an influential GOP governor for the party to go big, go bold, now that Republicans have control of Congress and the White House for the first time in a decade.

With that control comes pressure to deliver on long-sought policy priorities, and the four-day Conservative Political Action Conference marks one of activists first big post-election brainstorming sessions on how to achieve those goals.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a conservative icon dating back to his high-profile fights with labor unions, rallied the crowd at the convention center just outside D.C. Thursday as he urged attendees not to get caught up in Washington.

As for the agenda ahead, he urged President Trump and conservatives to go bold.

"Do what you said you were going to do, said Walker, a former presidential candidate.

The conference at National Harbor in Maryland features a host of lawmakers and officials -- including top White House advisers and Vice President Pence on Thursday, and President Trump on Friday morning.

White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway predicted Thursday morning that the energy surrounding the new president is so intense, tomorrow it will be TPAC when hes here.

During her remarks on the CPAC stage, Conway lauded her bosss ability to make supporters feel like theyre part of a movement.

He went right to the grassroots and brought you along, she said.

The conference was from the outset a departure from recent CPAC gatherings, which for the last eight years were used to bash the Obama administration. Now, Republicans are in control and working on their own agenda.

The conservative movement has elected a Republican president, American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp said Wednesday, at the start of the annual conference, which his group sponsors. Its not so much now about complaining about President Obamas agenda as it is about what well do with political power and the responsibility to get the economy moving.

Leaders are hoping to use the conference to strategize about what they can accomplish and to better articulate their values at a time when the very definition of conservatism has seemed to waver.

But much of the buzz around the four-day event has centered on CPAC organizers pulling the speaking slot of alt-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos, after the release of an audio tape in which he made what Schlapp called disgusting comments.

Yiannopoulos seems on the year-old tape to defend adults having sex with minors. Yiannopoulos apologized this week for the comments and said he had been sexually abused as a teen.

Schlapp said Wednesday that CPAC invited Yiannopoulos because the backlash he faced for his college talks were part of a large, chilling effect regarding free speech on campus.

We understand the alt-right, but it has no voice in conservativism, Schlapp said. Bigotry has no voice in conservativism.

The attendance of Trump, the first president since Ronald Reagan to visit CPAC in a first term, has indeed brought some energy to the 44-year-old event.

But other scheduled speakers and events -- including the speech by Pence and a one-on-one Thursday between White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Trump strategist Steve Bannon -- are also attracting a lot of interest.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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At CPAC, Walker urges Republican leaders to 'go big, go bold' - Fox News

Herb Jackson, USA TODAY Network Published 12:22 p.m. ET Feb. 22, 2017 | Updated 1:28 p.m. ET Feb. 22, 2017

In this Jan. 22, 2014, file photo, Rep. Kristi Noem, R-S.D., speaks in Pierre to the South Dakota Senate.(Photo: Chet Brokaw, AP)

A free-market advocacy group in Washington launched television ads in South Dakota on Wednesday to pressure Rep. KristiNoemto oppose a cornerstone of the House GOPs tax reform plan.

The ads aired by the Club for Growth say that costs to consumers would go up by $1,700 a year on the average family if Congress enacts "border adjustment," a proposalto tax imported products while lettingdomestic producers export tax-free. House Republican leaders, including Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, see the idea as a way to encourage more domestic manufacturing.

"Washington special interests are fighting desperately to protect a huge tax break that hurts American workers and farmers by favoring foreign products over American-made products," Brady said. "It's a big reason our U.S. jobs are going overseas. House Republicans are closing these loopholes and insisting on fair tax laws so jobs will come back to America."

But the National Retail Federation, which is battling the proposal,developed the study that said prices for consumers would go up $1,700. Some farm groups have also voiced worries aboutretaliation by countries that import their crops.

Noem is a four-term Republican who serves on theWays and Means Committee, which is working to craft an overhaul to the corporate and individual tax code. The ad says she has not taken a position on border adjustment planand encourages viewers to call a number to tell her to oppose it.

Club for Growth President David McIntosh praised aspects of the House GOP tax plan, including lower rates andelimination of estate taxes, but he said border adjustment taxes "will hurt American families." The South Dakota ad buy will costmore than $150,000, and spokesman Doug Sachtlaben said other members of the Ways and Means Committee may also be targeted.

Brady has said he hopes to get tax reform through the House this year. But the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, has said his panel would go its own route.

Whether the two chambers can unite with President Trump on a tax plan remains to be seen.

On CBS'Face the Nation on Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.,said Congress was "stumbling"in key areas.

"The House is talking about a tax plan that won't get 10 votes in the Senate," Graham said.

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Border tax spurs Republican-on-Republican attacks - USA TODAY

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Ads tout Republican health care plan that doesn't exist MSNBC Congressional Republicans are feeling quite antsy following the recent wave of progressive activism, including some fierce audiences at town-hall events, and GOP leaders are eager to ease their burden. The Washington Post noted yesterday that 22 House ... Most Republicans trust President Trump over Paul Ryan as they have since MayWashington Post all 79 news articles »

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Ads tout Republican health care plan that doesn't exist - MSNBC

Since the election, the threat of Obamacare repeal has never appeared more distant. But even if the entire effort falls apart, the dysfunction Republicans have invited into the legislative process leaves the country vulnerable to other calamities. Through sheer incompetence and avarice, Republicans could both squander their chance to eliminate the ACA and plunge the economy into chaos. This outcome isnt inevitable, but unless Republicans recalibrate their agenda to match the reality of their political weaknesses, the chain reaction could easily end explosively.

Federal budget expert Stan Collender noticed the structural infirmity of the GOPs legislative strategy almost two weeks ago. He offers a detailed technical explanation here, but for laymen, it makes more sense to look back to 2001, when Republicans last took power after losing the popular vote, and set about passing large, permanent tax cuts.

The arcane rules of the Senate gave them two ways to do this: Either with enough bipartisan support to overcome a filibuster, or through a complex budget process that would allow them to circumvent the filibuster. This second option, though, was only available if the tax plan didnt create structural deficits in the long term. If they use the process to pass a straight-up deficit-financed tax cut it would automatically sunset after 10 years. Not permanent at all.

Figuring a trillion-or-so dollars of upward redistribution was better than none, Republicans picked option two, and 10 years later, President Barack Obama allowed the most regressive of those tax cuts to expire.

In 2017, Republicans want to avoid the trap of reducing tax rates only to see them spring back up in a decade. That means their tax bill will have to be revenue neutral, and thats why they settled on repeal-and-delay without thinking through future complications. By ending the ACAs benefits three years in the future, but zeroing out its taxes immediately, Republicans would lower the revenue baseline enough to make a separate, revenue-neutral tax bill feasible. The combination of the two would amount to a revenue-neutral tax bill, plus a massive, regressive tax cut financed by eliminating insurance subsidies for millions of poor and working class people. The reckoning (what to do when their insurance subsidies expired) wouldnt come until after midterm elections.

When political support for this plan failed to materializewhen insurers threatened to leave the market, and beneficiaries became outragedRepublicans agreed to repeal the law and replace it in tandem. But that reordering of objectives knocked the foundation out from under the larger plan. They wont have the votes they need to replace Obamacare unless they finance an alternative with similar benefits, which means they cant eliminate the ACAs tax increases by fiat, which means the revenue baseline will remain in place, which means any future tax reform package cant be a boon to millionaires unless it expires in 10 years.

It is possible, as Brookings Institution congressional expert Sarah Binder told reporters Wednesday, to imagine Republicans abandoning ACA repeal in favor of a large, temporary tax cut, just like they did in 2001. That would come as a huge relief to the people turning congressional town halls into standing-room only affairs. But it would come with a huge risk: That Republicans, at the height of dysfunction, will find themselves unable to increase the debt limit.

Had the original plan worked perfectly, Republicans would most likely have increased the debt limit as a rider to their tax bill or their repeal of the ACA, circumventing the filibuster altogether. The collapse of that agenda would leave them with two terrible choices: They could increase the debt limit on their own, in conjunction with a tax cut bill that increases the debt itself by trillions. Or they could turn to Democrats, at least eight of whom would have to help them increase the debt limit as a standalone measure through the regular, filibustery order.

Either option entails a huge risk of failure. With a two-vote margin of error, Republicans going at it on their own could find themselves up against the summer deadline to increase the debt limit, but without enough votes to executeparticularly if the debt limit hike is part of a regressive tax cut bill that increases deficits dramatically.

Option two creates the potential for another debt-limit standoff. The difference is that in 2011 and 2013, Republicans had a majority in one house of Congress. Their obligation to help increase the debt limit stemmed from their partial control of government. Democrats have no such obvious buy in. If Republicans turn to them for help, Democrats will at least demand that the debt limit increase be large, and free of partisan policy riders. That might well send conservative Republicans scurrying to the exits, requiring more Democratic participation and increasing Democratic leverage.

But what if Democrats wont help unless Republicans concede something? What if Democrats demand that the legislation eliminate the debt limit for all time? Or that Republicans create a bipartisan commission to investigate Trumps ties to Russia and other conflicts of interest? Or an end to ICE raids and the defunding of the border wall? Or simply that Trumps Department of Health and Human Services take steps to re-stabilize the ACA insurance markets?

In the political climate Democrats currently inhabitin a climate of outrage over Trumps racism, corruption, and viciousnessits very hard to imagine them saying let bygones be bygones and bailing out the GOP with an unreciprocated debt limit increase. Theyre likelier to say, Right yourselves, govern in the center, or raise the debt limit on your own.

Neither of these scenarios guarantees a breach, and a default on the debt. But it increases the already-uncomfortable risk of both to a higher level than ever before, at a time when the onus to govern has passed from Barack Obama to Donald Trump, leaving basic competence at a historical nadir.

If Obamacare survives the next few months, liberals will have cause to celebrate. Then, just as quickly, theyll have an even larger crisis to confront.

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The Republican Congress Is Courting a Major Crisis - New Republic

Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas tried hard to avoid made-for-TV confrontations at his first Trump-era town hall Wednesday night.

So much for that.

Even the Pledge of Allegiance was politicized, as the raucous crowd crescendoed to emphasize the final wordsfor all a clear dig at President Donald Trump, who critics have said has been far more nationalistic than inclusive inthe early days of his presidency.

The assembled Arkansans repeatedly roared their disapproval and shook hundreds of sheets of red construction paper to expresstheir anger. For two hours, Cotton stood with his hands clasped or arms tucked behind his back, a tight-lipped and limp smile on his face, as his constituents interrupted him with a wide variety of boos and chants, including Do your job! and Tax returns!

All those civility talks didnt stick, Caitlynn Moses, the head of the local chapter of the progressive group Indivisible, told VICE News.

Cotton tried to appease the crowd, but again and again his olive branches were used against him, especially when policy questions came up. He said he didnt agree with President Trumps recent tweet that some members of the media were enemies of the American people. Still,the crowd was more concerned with 25-year-old Kati McFarland, who said she suffers from severe Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and said that without the Affordable Care Act I will die. Chants of ACA soon reverberated throughout the auditorium, and the crowd refused to let Cotton move on until they felt he had satisfactorily answered McFarlands question.

There were a few Make America Great Again hats in the audience. But it was a largely angry crowd at the performing arts center of Springdale High School on Wednesday.

Such scenes of political acrimony have become standard at Republican town halls across the country over the past several weeks. Fearful of the Trump administrations policies on health care, climate change, Russia, immigration, and education, liberals are adopting thetactics the Tea Party used eight years ago, packing town halls across the country. These progressive grassroots forces also raised the ire of President Trump this week:

In response, the majority of congressional Republicans are not scheduling in-person town halls this recess, fearful of becoming the next viral meme.

But after weeks of passionate lobbying efforts from activists, Cotton relented and decided to wade into the politically charged waters of the town hall. He did his best to avoid the fate of his fellow Republicans and endear himself to the 2,000-plus standing-room-only crowd, some of whom drove over three hours from Little Rock to this more conservative region in the Northwest of the state. Trump won just over 60 percent of the vote in Arkansas in November, and Cotton himself defeated an incumbent senator two years before with 56 percent of the vote. Even so, the minority was the majority Wednesday evening.

The senator kicked things off by bringing Moses up to the stage and offering her the first question of the evening. Cotton had personally called Moses last month to promise he would hold a town hall after she and other local activists had lobbied his office for weeks.

She surprised him by giving her question to someone she felt was more affected by the Trump administration.

Cotton told the crowd he would stay for an additional half hour to answer more questions. Then Jeff Rich, whod traveled to the event from Springdale, used that extra time to tell the senator that you seem more interested in building your brand with Mitch McConnell and Washington Republicans than with Arkansans. Cotton, Rich pointed out, has voted the party line 95 percent of the time.

Cotton said he didnt care if the attendeeswere paid protestors a claim put forth by other Republicans without evidence when confronted at their own town halls because youre Arkansans and I care what you have to say. But the crowd seemed to want an answer about why a deficit hawk like Cotton thought it was okay to spend tens of billions on a border wall. The red sheets again came out when Cotton answered that the border wall was a matter of national security.

The attendees had organized to produce camera-ready confrontations like these. Almost all of the nearly two dozen people VICE News interviewed had typed up or handwritten their questions before the town hall. If they hadnt, there were sheets floating around the hall with suggested questions.

The swath of red cards wasnt accidental either. The red paper was a symbol of unified demonstration of resistance, chosen by Indivisible members at their pre-town hall meeting two weeks ago, according to Ozark Indivisible organizer Shannon Simons.

As organizers hoped, some clips from the event quickly spread online and became grist for cable news. Local media outlets also covered the event extensively. But the question still remains what Cotton and other congressional Republicans will do when they return to Washington next week.

Cover:Constituents hold signs in disagreement with U.S. Congressman Leonard Lance (R-NJ 7) during a town hall event at a community college in Branchburg, New Jersey, Feb.22, 2017. REUTERS/Dominick Reuters.

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Voter anger boils over at yet another Republican town hall - VICE News