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The Road Ahead Turns Right

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

Published: November 3, 2010

Energized by their big victories in the midterm elections, Congressional Republican leaders wasted no time on Wednesday in putting President Obama and Democrats on notice: the days of single-party control are numbered and legislating in Washington is about to get a whole lot more complicated.

Oh, and by the way, lest anyone forget: Republicans still have major problems with the two major pieces of legislation that Democrats pushed through this year — the overhauls of health care and financial regulation — and they intend to do something about it as soon as they can.

In addition, the Republicans want to continue all of the Bush-era tax cuts — a step Mr. Obama opposes. Cutting government spending is high on the list, a goal the president shares, although Republican leaders have yet to offer specifics.

They also seemed likely to push forward with their own legislation, challenging Democrats to deal with the government-sponsored mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and pressing on various economic and trade issues.

[SNIP]

The prospects of a repeal are extremely slim, given that Democrats hold a majority in the Senate and Mr. Obama enjoys veto power. But Republicans are likely to insist on changing whatever provisions they can.

On the financial regulation front, Republicans did not threaten to repeal the law, but they said they would use the leverage of their new House majority to conduct careful oversight, which could include hearings and the use of subpoena power.

“When it comes to the financial services bill and the 358 regulatory filings required under that bill,” Mr. Boehner said, “it’s going to require a significant amount of oversight — so that not only will the Congress understand, but the American people will understand, just what this bill will do to our financial services industry.” The Republicans will also most likely seek changes to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which they believe was given too much power.

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In the days and weeks ahead, we will discover more of what is in the agenda.

For sure, we already see that the GOP wants the following:
- Undo parts of Health care law that is not favoring business profit margins   [You know, the 85% spend on care or 80% on care if dealing with small business]
- Undo parts of Financial Regulatory Reform and get control of oversight
- Extend ALL of Bush-era tax cuts including the truly wealthy [those with income > $500k] (i.e., beyond the HENRYs)
- Undo the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

It's going to be a heavy fight in the Congress in the next two years.

As to the people who voted and the huge outcry from the country - none of the above three go towards helping the ordinary lunchpail carrying employee.

As they fight for whatever it is that they want to repeal, we will find out what is truly or not in the best interest of the people.  I am sure we will continue to get barrage of advertisements; regardless of how many advertisements come our way, we are going to have to peel through the onion to find if there is any real truth to the stink the ads raise.

-- Edited by Sanders on Friday 5th of November 2010 02:46:16 PM