From: Robert Reich What’s ahead from the Republican Senate? Pay no attention to their soothing rhetoric about cooperation and compromise. Here are three concrete initiatives weve learned about so far: (1) Mitch McConnell says the Republican Senate will seek to strike elements of the Affordable Care Act, like its tax on medical devices, the mandate requiring individuals to buy insurance or pay a penalty, and the definition of full-time work as 30 hours a week. (2) South Dakota Sen. John Thune, expected to chair the Commerce Committee, says one of the first orders of business will be to approve the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. (3) Thune also says the Republican Senate will challenge the president’s executive actions on immigration by de-funding a portion of the Department of Homeland Security, which runs out of money in February. Obama will veto these, of course -- which will put a small handful of Democratic senators into the catbird seat, able to extract from the White House whatever they want to prevent them from joining Republicans in overriding the veto. Fasten seat belts.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 17:32:30 +0000