Republicans look to challenge Obama as new Congress arrives (Feature)

By Chris Cermak Jan 3, 2011, 2:16 GMT

Washington - Republicans are sharpening their knives as a new class of lawmakers comes to the US capital this week, hoping to challenge and even derail President Barack Obama's policies on a whole host of domestic issues.

The battle lines were already drawn during an intensely partisan 2010 that saw clashes between Obama and the Republican opposition on everything from health care and government spending to the handling of terrorism suspects and how to rein in Wall Street's excesses.

This year will mark the first time under Obama that Republicans have a hand in governing, at a time when the world's largest economy remains fragile and unemployment remains near 10 per cent.

Heavy losses for Obama in November's congressional elections mean conservatives will control the House of Representatives when lawmakers return Wednesday to Washington, while Obama's left-leaning Democrats retain a slimmed majority in the Senate.

The first week will include some pageantry.

Republicans on Thursday will read the US Consitution aloud for the first time ever in the Capitol, a nod to the populist Tea Party movement, credited with reviving the conservative party's flagging fortunes last year.

Divided government is hardly new in the United States.

Former president George W Bush spent a little less than half of his time in the White House governing with Democrats in control of at least one chamber, while predecessor Bill Clinton dealt with a Republican legislature for the last six of his eight years in the White House.

Like many past presidents, the new political reality is likely to force Obama to move to the political middle after two years of fellow Democrats holding the majority in both legislative chambers.

Obama will be forced to walk 'a fine line between pragmatism and principle,' political analyst Stuart Rothenberg wrote last month.

That means reaching out to moderates and Republicans without alienating the left-leaning base of Obama's own party.

'I'm willing to work with anyone of either party who's got a good idea and the commitment to see it through,' Obama said in a radio address on Saturday. 'We should all expect (Americans) to hold us accountable for our progress or our failure to deliver.'

The political shift probably rules out sweeping overhauls of domestic policy, such as the controversial 2010 reforms of health care and financial regulation, instead turning the focus to smaller- scale steps to revive a still weak economy and labour market.

For the incoming Republican class, the number one priority will be cutting government spending, which pushed the budget deficit to about 10 per cent of economic output in 2010. Conservative lawmakers want spending slashed to 2008 levels, before Obama entered office.

'The American people want a smaller, more accountable government,' Republican John Boehner will say Wednesday, according to the Washington Post, when he takes control of the House from current Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who will continue to lead the Democrats. 'The House of Representatives will be the American people's outpost in Washington.'

Standoffs in the coming months threaten to shut down operations and could spook the markets. The federal government is set to run out of money in early March, if no 2011 budget is approved, and will likely hit its legal debt ceiling some time in the middle of the year.

Borrowing above certain levels requires regular congressional approval, typically a formality, which some Republicans have this time sought to block unless Obama approves sweeping budget cuts. The government would be forced into default if the ceiling is not raised.

Conservatives have vowed congressional investigations into Obama's regulations and spending policies. Darrel Issa, a California congressman who will head a congressional oversight panel, over the weekend called the Obama government 'one of the most corrupt administrations.'

2011 will begin much like 2010 did, with a revival of the bitter debate over health care. The House leadership has promised a vote within the month to repeal Obama's health reforms, which deeply divided the US public.

The symbolic effort will not win the backing of the Democratic- controlled Senate and would certainly be vetoed by Obama. Republicans have vowed to use other means of stopping its implementation, including pending court challenges and starving the bill of funding.

'We're going to go after this bill piece by piece,' Republican Congressman Fred Upton told Fox News on Sunday.

Climate change will be another battlefront.

Conservatives have suggested stripping the government's environmental regulatory agency of its ability to limit greenhouse- gas pollution from electric plants, a power Obama has pledged to use in 2011 after failing to get broader climate legislation through Congress during his first two years.

Both parties will inevitably be looking toward the 2012 presidential elections. Obama hopes to begin turning around a job approval rating that stayed consistently below 50 per cent throughout 2010, while Republicans will be making life difficult in an effort to give their own budding 2012 candidates a winning start.

Read more about US Politics