What does a Congress controlled by the Republicans mean?

Opinion of the Editor James of "Obama in the White House Blog"


The effect of a takeover of the House by the Republicans will have a profound effect on President Obama's agenda. If people think that the political machine is broken now, just wait until the Republicans regain the majority in the House. Most everything in President Obama's agenda from now until at least 2012 may fail.

President Obama's party now would be part of the minority party. The House would be taken over by the new Republican speaker of the House, John Boehner. For the last few years, he has been powerless as a minority leader to influence and shape legislation. Now, he gets to control everything, as he even now decides which bills will reach the floor for a debate. The Democrats would have no more real legislative power, and they would not be able to advance the President's agenda. Most likely any vote on policy that the President can veto if it is drawn up by the Republicans will be veto'd. All the Democrats can do is sit back and watch.

It was pretty tuff for a Democratic President to get the people on both sides of the fence in agreement on most anything. Now it will be the Republicans turn trying to sway Democrats to vote for their proposed policies, but as demonstrated by the Republicans, the Democrats most likely will vote primarily along party lines, meaning that most of the time they will not vote conservatively, but liberally, therefore both sides most of the time will now be in agreement. Furthermore, any major policy delivered by the Republicans in the House can get shot down because the minority party along with the President will not buy into the legislation.
The Republicans will now have to try and pull support from the Democrats on some of their bills. The Republicans as a minority during the first two years of Obama's term were succesful in voting the opposite way of the majority party, and now the Democrats stand to do the same.

In a nutshell, this means that the President may likely be a "lame duck" President for the first time after only 2 years in office. This will mean that legislation most likely will not get passed unless the two parties agree, and that is hardly ever.

President Obama was right in taking control and doing what he was capable in doing before power changed hands. At least he had two full years of provoking legislation that could be passed. Now is the time to observe a 'do nothing' Congress in action and no legislation that requires majority of both houses to pass.
But there is light at the end of the tunnel. The Republicans will have the same amount of time, two years, to dig their own holes and bury themselves before the main general election in 2012. By then, most of Obama's policies will be in full force, and the people should be benefiting from them. After the people watch the Republicans destroy their own party once again, the re-election of President Obama may be likely, and maybe Congress will be regained by the Democrats.

With all this said, the elections are still 24 hours away, and the Democrats are not out of power yet. There is a chance, though it may be slight, that the Democrats keep control of the House, and in doing so, will put to rest all of the threats by the Republican base, along with the immediate death of the "tea party".