As good as things are looking for a Republican takeover of the Senate – and at this late stage they’re looking very good – I realize some have a hard time being enthusiastic about this achievement because Barack Obama will still be president.
And it’s true. A GOP Congress can’t do the things we probably want done the most – like getting rid of ObamaCare – on their own because they will face an Obama veto if they try. Obviously Obama won’t be able to pass his agenda, but since the GOP has controlled the House since 2011, he hasn’t been able to get a lot through Congress for some time now.
So will anything of substance really change? Yes, it absolutely will. Maybe not everything we would like – we will need a conservative president for that – but enough that we should be very enthusiastic about what can change just in the next two years.
Here are five crucial examples:
Budgets
Congress has not passed a real budget since 2009 because the Democrats didn’t want to put forth a document that allowed the public to see their fiscal irresponsibility. They’ve kept the government running with a series of continuing resolutions that assume existing spending priorities will simply continue.
That is the height of irresponsibility, but as long as the media let them get away with it – and they have – Harry Reid has no fear of continuing to use the tactic. With Republicans in control of both chambers, there is no reason they should not return to passing real budgets and putting them in front of Obama for his signature. If he doesn’t want to sign them because he has different priorities, that is his right, but he will have to make his case rather than hiding behind a continuing resolution process that shields him from all accountability.
Judges
If Obama tries to nominate unqualified, liberal activist judges to the federal courts, there will be no friendly Senate Majority Leader to change filibuster rules on the fly to help him get these people confirmed. Indefensible, partisan nominations will be dead in the water. Obama will of course complain that the Republicans are “obstructing” him, but so what? Let him complain. That’s better than letting him corrupt the judicial branch by putting lots of partisan liberal hacks on the bench.
Investigations
I am not interested in contrived scandals and I hope Senate Republicans aren’t either. But we need answers on things like the IRS, Benghazi, Fast and Furious and lots of other things. To date, the House has been doing all the heavy lifting while the Senate simply stonewalls because Harry Reid’s mission in life is to protect Obama. It’s about time the Senate did its job.
No more buried bills
For the past four years, most bills that pass the House never even get a committee hearing or a floor debate in the Senate. Harry Reid simply buries them. That is a complete abuse of his power, but Reid doesn’t care and no one does a thing about it. With Republicans in control of the Senate, good bills can actually get a hearing, a debate and a vote. Obama can still veto them, of course, but at least he will have to take that action and defend it instead of being able to hide behind Reid’s skirt.
ObamaCare solutions
As I said at the top, Obama is not going to sign a repeal of ObamaCare. We need to elect a conservative in 2016 to make that happen. But there are many excellent steps that could be taken right now to solve ObamaCare’s biggest problems, easing the burden on the American people until we can get to full repeal. Obama prefers to take steps administratively rather than involving Congress, but when the House and the Senate can act in concert and put real solutions on his desk, how will he explain vetoing these bills or trying to subvert them?
Republican control of the Senate means Congress can take real action to address the issues Americans care about the most, and put Obama on the defensive if he insists on maintaining the status quo. Maybe he will simply block everything the GOP Congress tries to do, but I think that will be difficult for him to do.
So yes, we can look forward to real achievements in 2015-2016 if we take the Senate on Tuesday. I know I’m excited about it. You should be too.
