Republicans in US Congress may have dialed back their rhetoric, but that does not mean they are any more likely to yield to an unpopular Democratic president.
Coming off a bruising debt-ceiling debate that spooked investors, unnerved Americans and took the country to the edge of default, Republican leaders have promised to lower the temperature on Capitol Hill and try to work with US President Barack Obama wherever possible.
However, Republicans have little incentive to compromise on their small--government philosophy and the spending and tax issues that will dominate the agenda through the end of the year.
Obama’s negative approval rating gives him little clout on Capitol Hill and a surprise Republican victory in a New York special election on Tuesday is seen by his opponents as further repudiation of his policies.
Many of Obama’s proposals to stimulate the economy and cut into a stubbornly high 9.1 percent unemployment rate also run counter to Republicans’ small--government philosophy.
Since unveiling his jobs plan last week, the president has repeatedly exhorted Republicans to approve the US$447 billion package.
Following the current Capitol Hill playbook, Republicans might be unwilling to give the president a victory as they gear up for elections in November next year that could hand them control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, said Ethan Siegal, from the public policy analysis firm The Washington Exchange.
“Their new post-summer recess strategy appears to be to smile and not look so harsh as they did during the debt-ceiling debate, to look open to anything that President Obama might propose, but basically stick to their philosophical and political guns,” Siegal said.
Republican leaders in the US House of Representatives have said they share the president’s goal of boosting employment, but disagree with many of the methods he would use.
Republicans have rejected many of the proposed measures and have ruled out the tax increases that Obama’s wants to cover the cost.
“Republicans and Democrats don’t and aren’t going to agree on everything,” House Republican leader Eric Cantor said on Tuesday. “Maybe the issue of taxation, maybe some of these other issues, will have to be left for the election.”
Republicans have plenty of reasons to feel confident about their electoral prospects.
Obama will be saddled by a sluggish economy and high unemployment, while Republicans are favored to retain control of the House and could easily win the Senate as well.
Swing voters, who could determine the outcome of next year’s elections, see themselves as more in tune ideologically with Republicans than with Democrats, according to a poll that was released on Tuesday by the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way.
They also gave Republicans higher marks for deficit reduction, a top priority for Americans.
Republican leaders are doubtless aware of Congress’ rock--bottom approval ratings in the wake of the debt-limit crisis as Americans worry whether both parties can work together to avert another recession.
That could mean a smoother path for the routine legislation that was shunted aside during the debt-ceiling fight.
The Senate’s top Republican, Mitch McConnell, said on Tuesday that he thought Congress would not allow money for airport construction projects to lapse again, as it did last month.
Cantor said on Monday he was not inclined to provoke a confrontation over a spending bill that ensures the government can continue functioning beyond Sept. 30.
A battle over a similar bill in April took the government to the brink of a shutdown.
Republicans have also said that budget concerns will not hold up disaster aid for victims of Hurricane Irene and other recent catastrophes.
However, the two parties remain at odds over how quickly Congress must approve that money, and whether it should be offset with spending cuts to avoid deepening the country’s fiscal woes.
However, a divided Congress may have trouble passing even relatively noncontroversial legislation as the election nears, one analyst said.
“I just don’t think there’s a lot of trust or interest in cooperation. It’s basically punting it back to the voters and saying, ‘pick one [party] and we’ll go from there,’” said Brian Gardner, a Washington analyst with Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
RSS