WASHINGTON — Members of the 115th Congress were sworn in on Tuesday, setting off an aggressive campaign by Republicans who control the House and Senate to dismantle eight years of President Barack Obama’s Democratic policies.
One of the biggest and most immediate targets is Obama’s Affordable Care Act, which many Republicans have long sought to gut and has been blamed as a primary cause for a lackluster economic recovery. But decades-old programs that millions of Americans rely on every day, such as Social Security and Medicare, also will be in the crosshairs as congressional Republicans seek to shrink both the size of the federal budget and the bureaucracy in Washington. “We have a lot to do — and a lot to undo,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said in a letter to fellow Republicans.
Democrats will try to block the far-reaching conservative agenda by swaying public opinion and using the power they have in the Senate to filibuster legislation. But that strategy has its political limitations. Twenty-three Senate Democrats are up for re-election in 2018, including 10 from states won by President-elect Donald Trump, and they could break ranks and side with the GOP.
“Democrats will not sit idly by and watch the Affordable Care Act be dismantled and tens of millions lose their insurance and protections,” House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters on Monday.
Obama plans a rare trip to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to meet with congressional Democrats and discuss strategy for saving the health care law. Vice President-elect Mike Pence will meet with Republicans.
The first week of the new Congress will be a preview of the hectic pace planned by Republicans.
The House voted on Tuesday on a rules package that would gut the independent Office of Congressional Ethics, placing it under the purview of the lawmaker-run House Ethics Committee. Democrats and watchdog groups angrily denounced the notion of Congress’ self-policing.
The rules package also would give Republican leaders the tools to punish lawmakers if there is a repeat of the Democratic sit-in last summer over the failure to move gun control legislation.
Votes also are expected on resolutions to denounce the United Nations for condemning the construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Republicans blasted the Obama administration for refusing to veto the decision. House Speaker Paul Ryan pledged “to reverse the damage done by this administration, and rebuild our alliance with Israel.”
