The GOP is preparing its agenda, according to an Associated Press article. Its main plan is “to cut spending, roll back President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul and prevent unelected bureaucrats from expanding the government’s role in society through regulations that tell people what they must or can’t do.”
Along with that, it also plans to hold more stringent investigations and hearings on “the president’s programs and policies.” The GOP felt the Democratic Committee Chairman was too lenient.
Not surprising, really. The GOP has been saying it’d do this since it realized it would get a leg up in Congress in 2010. If it could resurrect Ronald Reagan it’d faint from excitement. The anticipation would be annoying if it wasn’t so honest of them.
The problem here is the GOP may be so excited to stick it to the Democrats it may lose sight of what it’s supposed to do as elected politicians, which is represent its voters, not reverse every decision made by the previous party in office.
Possibly worse is it does’nt have a majority in both the House and the Senate. It may be able to ram things through in the House – and it probably will, even the Democrats could do it – but with the Democrats still having a narrow majority in the Senate, the gridlock results will only be worse.
Whether or not the GOP can carry through with its agenda, if it focuses too much on just its anti-Democrat agenda, the consequences could be unpleasant.
Spending cuts and the prevention of government expansion are fine goals, noble goals even. If they are done with a clear mind and with the intent of bettering the Republic, then the Republicans will prove many people wrong.
More likely, the Republicans are just going to stonewall reform and reduce various government benefits programs to meet its goals. I’m not looking forward to the fallout from trying to roll back health care change, either. It took a year to get something signed into law, and now they want to go back and hit the reset button.
Wasting time and energy on health care is not a good start to a new Congress. However, the health care reform has been called a start, not a finish. If the Republicans wanted to work on the health care reform to make it better, that’s fine.
Of course it’s unlikely they’ll see things that way. Whatever the Republicans do they must be wary. If its agenda works and betters the nation and its government, then it did a good job. If it just wants to reverse everything the Democrats did and replace it with a different vision of America, then the people and the Republicans are in trouble.
The GOP is once again in a position to prove the naysayers wrong and show America that it, as a party, can be modern and reform-minded while still adhering – however loosely – to its old-fashioned party platform. Hopefully the Republicans will see that, but more likely they’ll just prove everybody right once again.
