Republicans ready to battle healthcare

Barack Obama. Photo / Getty Images.

Riding back into town as the new majority party in the House of Representatives, gleeful Republicans will this week waste no time in asserting their agenda on Capitol Hill.

They will introduce as a first step a bill to repeal the most hard-fought achievement of President Barack Obama in his first two years in office: the healthcare reform law.

The 241-194 Republican majority in the lower chamber of Congress that emerged from the mid-term elections of November will mean stiffer headwinds for Obama as he returns from his Christmas break in Hawaii and embarks on the second half of his first term as President with more than half an eye fixed on re-election next year.

The next few days will not be without some theatrics on Capitol Hill, notably on Friday when Republicans in the House, led by soon-to-be Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, will deliver a public reading of the US Constitution, the document that Tea Partiers ritualistically cite as they accuse Obama of government over-reach.

Party strategists want to see the healthcare repeal bill passed by the full House before Obama arrives on Capitol Hill this month to deliver the annual State of the Union address.

It may not get any further, however, with Democrats still clinging on to a majority in the Senate. Even if Republicans were able to navigate the law through the upper chamber, Obama would be certain to veto it on its arrival for signature in the Oval Office.

As the new Congress convenes for the first time tomorrow, the stakes for all sides will be unusually high.

While the Republicans may at first savour their new-found strength, they will know that with it comes responsibility. Voters are unlikely to show them much forbearance if progress on Capitol Hill falls victim to partisan rancour.

Yet the Republican Party must also find ways to honour the wishes of Tea Party voters who galvanised the base last year and sent a new class of conservatives to Washington with clear instructions to impede Obama whenever possible, shrink government, slash federal spending, lower taxes and return rights to the states.

While the recitation of the Constitution will be symbolic, the series of aggressive investigations that the party is likely to launch almost immediately will not be.

Leading that effort will be the new chairman of the committee on oversight and government reform, Darrell Issa of California. He will have the power of subpoena to force members of the Obama Administration to come to Capitol Hill and defend it against allegations of federal profligacy.

The new House majority will also seek ways to undo any new regulatory initiatives by the Administration that Republicans oppose, most importantly steps announced by the Environmental Protection Agency before Christmas to curb emissions from large industrial complexes and powerplants.

"We will not allow the Administration to regulate what they have been unable to legislate," Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican, warned at the weekend.

And if party leaders know the Obamacare repeal bill is likely to die in the Senate, they still think the message will be heard by voters.

The posturing and bristling may seem as nothing beside the confrontation that is brewing over the federal debt. In the next month or two, the White House will be forced to go to Congress to ask for an increase in the federal debt ceiling.

But allowing for yet more borrowing would be anathema to the Tea Party flank.

Yet, bumping up against the debt's US$14.3 trillion ($18.5 trillion) ceiling without extending it would mean "defaulting on our obligations, which is totally unprecedented in American history", said Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, and he warned the Republicans not to stand in the way.

"The impact on the economy would be catastrophic."

What the President is facing:

The likely tormentors:

* Darrell Issa: Congressman from California, will use his position as chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to launch serial investigations into "bloated" federal spending, summoning members of the Obama Administration - with subpoenas if necessary - to testify.

* John Boehner: Congressman from Ohio, will be the new House Speaker and therefore the face of the new Republican majority in the Lower House.

* Eric Cantor: Congressman from Virginia, is set to be Boehner's No 2. A good performer in front of the television cameras and with an eminently sharp mind, Cantor is in tune with the party's conservative wing and will relish pushing for the repeal of Obamacare.

* Mitch McConnell: The top Republican in the Senate will fight to push legislation passed by his party in the House through the Senate. It won't be easy because the Democrats will still maintain a majority in the upper chamber.

* Michele Bachmann: The ultra-conservative from Minnesota founded the first Tea Party caucus in the House last year. She has been re-elected and will become the informal spokeswoman for the movement on Capitol Hill.

The likely fights:

* Immigration reform: President Obama must make some headway at least or risk losing Hispanic support.

* Debt ceiling: Disaster and default loom if Republicans refuse to authorise more federal borrowing.

* Healthcare: Republicans are bent on dismantling Obamacare, if necessary by starving it of funds.

* Taxes: The battle over Bush tax cuts for the rich will be rejoined next year. The liberals want them scrapped.

* Afghanistan: Congress and the voters are weary of war. Can Obama start withdrawals this year as he promised?

- Independent