Republican blitz

By Jim Killebrew

[January 07, 2015]  As the republicans took control of the 114th Congress on Tuesday John Boehner remained the Speaker of the House of Representatives, while Mitch McConnell took the Senate as Majority Leader, leaving Harry Reid out of his position he held for over a decade. The third-term Speaker has the largest majority in 70 years, while the new Majority Leader has a 54-46 edge over the once-majority democrats. It appears the Congress is looking to have a sparring match with the President over many of the issues the former Majority Leader, Harry Reid, protected the President from having to deal with by disallowing any bill seeing the light of day for debate; at least any bill that was felt to be unfavorable to the President.

As per the Constitution the Congress convened at noon and quickly got underway with the elections of the leadership. Even with the majority in both houses on the republican side, there will continue to be divisions between the members of the two parties. John Boehner faced at least ten republicans who wanted his job. Although the Speaker fought them off, winning back his leadership position, there remains an internal division between the conservative and moderate republicans.

That internal division has many ramifications for the upcoming year. The greater majority of the House member republicans are spending time talking of sending a deluge of bills to the Senate that will call for extreme or temporal roll-backs of components of the President's major achievements. The theory is that the Senate under a new majority and leadership will not sit on the bill as did the new Leader's predecessor, but will send it to the President for signature to watch the President's action. The President has promised to use his pen to veto anything he believes is not in accordance with his previous achievements. If that becomes reality, so the republicans think, it will demonstrate to the people once and for all, it was the President and the former Senate Majority Leader who was the "do-nothing" part of Congress.

Of course this only means the republicans will have achieved securing for themselves yet another black eye when it comes to the American perception of their ability to play nice. By trying to prove a negative so they can somehow become positive, they risk the danger of having the people turn on them as being unrealistic and playing politics when there are so many people hurting by the effects of the past six year's regulatory, jobs and energy-killing policies, and governmental agency oversight of intrusion into the lives of those who continue to suffer. The democrats, on the other hand, seem much more savvy with the turn of events regarding the loss of their majority.

At the beginning of the new session of Congress, both houses of Congress plan to introduce bills that will break the stalemate of the past few years regarding the Keystone Pipeline. They plan to jointly push for the approval to build the pipeline that is proposed to run from Canada to Texas. Even though the republicans would likely be able to pass their respective bills because of their majority, they are planning to enlist the help of democrats so they can promote the bill as a bipartisan effort. There is hope the logic of giving the go-ahead for such a bill would create jobs and stimulate the economy for years to come. The reasoning is that those affected who would benefit from the boost in their economy, the elected officials would be persuaded to represent the interest of their state's citizens rather than the continued political interest of a President and party that is increasingly being seen as a part favoring laws and policies that dampen economic growth.

This effort, among many others, cause the republicans to believe they will strengthen their voter appeal for the 2016 presidential election. Even when, or if, the tactics prove to be positive with many of the kudos falling toward the President, the republicans will benefit if they have established a pattern of pro-growth legislation that forces the President to get on board for some, even if he vetoes others.

Frankly, when it comes to the fact the Congress and the President have maintained an adversarial role, or at least the House of Representatives and the President have maintained an adversarial role, the American people might want to watch closely this new configuration of relationships. If the new Congress fresh from the November election wave begins to fold to the policies of liberally-slanted moderation and sides up to the more liberal side, succumbing to the Presidential threat of vetoes, the American citizen will once again be responsible for paying the bill.

[By JIM KILLEBREW]