|
|
|
Republicans
primed
for push
to
dismantle
Obama's
policies
By
RICHARD
LARDNER
ap.org
WASHINGTON
-
Members
of the
115th
Congress
will be
sworn in
at noon
Tuesday,
setting
off an
aggressive
campaign
by
Republicans
who
control
the
House
and
Senate
to
dismantle
eight
years of
President
Barack
Obama's
Democratic
policies.
One of
the
biggest
and most
immediate
targets
is
Obama's
Affordable
Care
Act,
which
many
Republicans
have
long
sought
to gut
and has
been
blamed
as a
primary
cause
for a
lackluster
economic
recovery.
But
decades-old
programs
that
millions
of
Americans
rely on
every
day,
such as
Social
Security
and
Medicare,
also
will be
in the
crosshairs
as
congressional
Republicans
seek to
shrink
both the
size of
the
federal
budget
and the
bureaucracy
in
Washington.
"We have
a lot to
do - and
a lot to
undo,"
House
Majority
Leader
Kevin
McCarthy,
R-Calif.,
said in
a letter
to
fellow
Republicans.
Democrats
will try
to block
the
far-reaching
conservative
agenda
by
swaying
public
opinion
and
using
the
power
they
have in
the
Senate
to
filibuster
legislation.
But that
strategy
has its
political
limitations.
Twenty-three
Senate
Democrats
are up
for
re-election
in 2018,
including
10 from
states
won by
President-elect
Donald
Trump,
and they
could
break
ranks
and side
with the
GOP.
"Democrats
will not
sit idly
by and
watch
the
Affordable
Care Act
be
dismantled
and tens
of
millions
lose
their
insurance
and
protections,"
House
Minority
Whip
Steny
Hoyer,
D-Md.,
told
reporters
Monday.
Obama
plans a
rare
trip to
Capitol
Hill on
Wednesday
to meet
with
congressional
Democrats
and
discuss
strategy
for
saving
the
health
care
law.
Vice
President-elect
Mike
Pence
will
meet
with
Republicans.
The
first
week of
the new
Congress
will be
a
preview
of the
hectic
pace
planned
by
Republicans.
The
House
will
vote on
Tuesday
on a
rules
package
that
would
gut the
independent
Office
of
Congressional
Ethics,
placing
it under
the
purview
of the
lawmaker-run
House
Ethics
Committee.
Democrats
and
watchdog
groups
angrily
denounced
the
notion
of
Congress'
self-policing.
The
rules
package
also
would
give
Republican
leaders
the
tools to
punish
lawmakers
if there
is a
repeat
of the
Democratic
sit-in
last
summer
over the
failure
to move
gun
control
legislation.
Votes
also are
expected
on
resolutions
to
denounce
the
United
Nations
for
condemning
the
construction
of
Israeli
settlements
in the
West
Bank and
east
Jerusalem.
Republicans
blasted
the
Obama
administration
for
refusing
to veto
the
decision.
House
Speaker
Paul
Ryan, R-Wis.,
pledged
"to
reverse
the
damage
done by
this
administration,
and
rebuild
our
alliance
with
Israel."
James
Clapper,
the
director
of
national
intelligence,
is
scheduled
to
testify
Thursday
before
the
Senate
Armed
Services
Committee
on an
intelligence
community
assessment
that
Russia
interfered
in the
U.S.
election
by
hacking
into
Democratic
email
accounts.
Allegations
of
Russian
meddling
in the
U.S.
political
process
will be
examined
by
individual
congressional
committees,
but
Senate
Majority
Leader
Mitch
McConnell
has
rejected
a
bipartisan
call for
a
special,
high-profile
select
panel to
investigate.
Obama
last
week
slapped
Russia
with
sweeping
penalties
over the
hacking
allegations,
yet
Trump
has not
publicly
accepted
the
conclusion
that
Moscow
was
behind
the
election
year
intrusions.
Incoming
White
House
press
secretary
Sean
Spicer
said
Monday
on Fox
News
Channel's
"Fox &
Friends"
that
"there
doesn't
seem to
be
conclusive
evidence"
that the
Russians
were
responsible.
The
House is
slated
to vote
Friday
to
certify
Trump's
victory
in the
presidential
election
over
Democrat
Hillary
Clinton.
She is
the
fifth
presidential
candidate
to win
the
popular
vote and
lose the
Electoral
College.
She
received
nearly
2.9
million
more
votes
than
Trump,
according
to an
Associated
Press
analysis,
giving
her the
largest
popular
vote
margin
of any
losing
presidential
candidate
and
bringing
renewed
calls to
abolish
the
Electoral
College.
Other
must-do
items on
the
GOP's
agenda
are an
overhaul
of the
U.S. tax
code.
Conservatives
also
want to
scuttle
rules on
the
environment
and undo
financial
regulations
created
in the
aftermath
of the
2008
economic
meltdown,
arguing
they are
too
onerous
for
businesses
to
thrive.
The
Senate
plans to
begin
repealing
Obama's
health
care law
on
Tuesday,
with
consideration
of a
procedural
measure
that
would
shield
the
initiative
from
Democratic
filibusters.
Lawmakers
will
then
spend
the next
few
months
working
on
legislation
canceling
broad
swaths
of the
law.
Likely
to go
are its
mandate
that
people
buy
health
insurance
or face
IRS
fines,
and its
expansion
of
Medicaid
coverage
to more
lower-earning
Americans.
But
several
elements
of the
repeal
likely
wouldn't
go into
effect
for two
to four
years.
Amid the
busy
legislative
schedule,
the
Senate
will
exercise
its
advice
and
consent
role and
consider
Trump's
picks
for his
Cabinet.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|