Republicans Pressured to 'Deliver'

The old saying, “Be Careful What You Wish For,” applies to politics.
The Republicans in Washington wanted Senate control—and they got it.
Indeed, the new Republican majority is coming under strong pressure to deliver economic relief to the voters who gave them even more power on Capitol Hill.
According to national exit polls, almost eight in 10 midterm voters confessed to worrying about the economy’s direction over the next year. Most have seen minimal growth in their paychecks, despite reported job-market gains.
However, these so-called “gains” are based on flimsy Labor Department reports which focus on the quantity of jobs more than their quality. Just because more people are working doesn’t mean they’re making ends meet.
Indeed, “under-employment” is just as important as unemployment. And being “unemployed” in the official sense doesn’t always mean people are idle. For example, the self-employed are rarely counted by the government.
And once people stop receiving jobless benefits, they’re no longer counted as “unemployed.” Therefore, the official and actual unemployment rates can differ greatly.
But despite this constant distortion of the economic outlook, the Republicans don’t have much time to prove they can do better than the Democrats.
For starters, Republican leaders have already vowed to push job-boosting bills that stalled in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
House Speaker John Boehner noted: “January will bring the opportunity to start making a real difference in the lives of struggling families. It is up to President Obama to start listening, and work with the new Congress to get things done.”
That underscores the challenges that incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the overall GOP face—now that they have more legislative impact on the economy.
But the GOP has to be able to convince Obama to sign the bills that will make a real difference. If the GOP asks for too much, the President will use his veto.
And things could get sticky when far-reaching trade deals and the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline come into play.
Boehner and McConnell both said that approving the partially-built “Keystone” is one of their top priorities to boost the economy.
Two other ideas these lawmakers named are:
• Giving businesses more incentives to hire veterans
• And making targeted changes to the Obamacare national health-insurance law.
However, the GOP is considering special floor tactics to try and repeal Obamacare altogether.
Furthermore, Douglas Holtz-Eakin of the Congressional Budget Office let the free-trade aspect slip when he stated: “There’s a whole menu of tax reform, regulatory reform [and] trade pacts . . . that [Washington] should do.”
He added that the business community would like to see Washington reduce its role in the economy. ‘
But whether Washington should reduce its role depends on which economic sectors are being considered.
If it means Congress should reduce its oversight of the private Federal Reserve System that manages our monetary policy behind closed doors, Constitutionalists would cry foul.
And if it means Wall Street trusts should not be challenged for their monetary mischief, then that also could backfire.
Furthermore, the Canadian-based Keystone pipeline and two pending global free-trade agreements run the risk of creating minimal middle-class jobs—while instead providing maximum profits for CEOs.
So, if the new Republican Senate majority simply helps “the 1%” at the expense of the rest, voters may soon miss the days when a Republican House and a Democratic Senate gave the nation a balance of power.
We forget that a little bit of gridlock can be good—because it creates the “checks and balances” needed to protect the people from harmful legislation.