Republicans flex muscle, Obama promises 'corrections'

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Republicans flexed their new-found political muscle by promising a string of investigations into Barack Obama's administration, as the president vowed to make some "corrections."

By seizing the House of Representatives in Tuesday's mid-term elections, Republicans gained the chairmanship of powerful House committees that can seek to embarrass the president by calling top aides to testify in public.

"I'm going to go after a lot of things and I'm going to do a lot of investigating," Representative Darrell Issa, who is set to take control of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, told Fox News Sunday.

Former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush faced epic showdowns with the House committees after crushing mid-term defeats in 1994 and 2006 respectively.

Issa said it was possible he would probe allegations that the White House offered to give Democratic Representative Joe Sestak an administration post if he stayed out of a Senate primary race.

Sestak won the primary against senator Arlen Specter, the White House's preferred candidate, and ended up narrowly losing to Republican nominee Pat Toomey.

Other targets of the committee probes could be Obama's health care reforms, the Justice Department's failure to probe alleged voter intimidation by the New Black Panther Party, and the handling of the BP oil spill.

The White House has yet to say how it plans to respond, but Obama, on a 10-day trip through Asia, offered his most candid appraisal yet of the crushing poll losses.

"People are frustrated," the president told a meeting with Indian students in Mumbai. "It requires me to make some mid-course corrections and adjustments."

As Obama played defense, leading Republicans took to the Sunday morning talk shows to attack the president over big spending, plans to increase taxes for the rich, and health care reforms they portray as a government takeover.

"The American people simply did not like what the president and this Congress were doing substantively," Mitch McConnell, the leading Republican in the Senate, told CBS's "Face the Nation."

"They didn't like the spending. They didn't like the debt. They didn't like the health care bill. And they wanted to have a mid-course correction. And that's what they voted for."

But in an interview taped with CBS's "60 Minutes" before he left for Asia and shown on Sunday night, Obama framed the electoral loss as a reflection of the stubbornly high unemployment and the moribund economy.

"I think first and foremost it was a referendum on the economy," Obama said. "And the party in power was held responsible for an economy that is still underperforming."

Republicans have vowed to try to repeal Obama's signature health care reforms, but this is unlikely as the president has the power to veto such a bid.

Rand Paul, who rode a wave of support from the ultra-conservative Tea Party movement to become a Republican senator in Kentucky, suggested they would pursue the matter in the courts.

"A federal judge in both Florida and Virginia have said, yes, we're going to go forward with this," Paul told ABC's "This Week" program. "So I think you will see that going forward and we will challenge it in the courts."

Republicans also scent blood over Bush-era tax cuts, which are set to expire on December 31.

After refusing steadfastly before the mid-terms to extend cuts for the richest Americans, warning that doing so would add 700 billion dollars over 10 years to the swollen US deficit, Obama has since signaled he may compromise and offer a temporary extension.

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, a leading Republican tipped for a White House run in 2012, conceded that mid-term success wasn't a clear endorsement of his party, which is still widely unpopular, according to opinion polls.

"It's not so much that people re-embraced Republicans," he said. "It said they didn't like the direction President Obama and (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Congress was taking the nation.

"Now they're at least opening the door to reconsidering supporting Republicans," he told CNN's "State of the Union."

"Now we have to govern and lead and produce results. And if we don't, we'll be thrown out in two years."

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.1ec17e6b417fa531977cea8fc63ac880.111&show_article=1

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

So we can look forward to Congress' witch hunt ritual. I'm sure that'll bring us a vibrant economy and create a lot of jobs. At least the pitch-fork industry should see some added demand.

[sly_wolf 199]

So we can look forward to Congress' witch hunt ritual. I'm sure that'll bring us a vibrant economy and create a lot of jobs. At least the pitch-fork industry should see some added demand.

I am sure they will be taking credit for any upturn in the economy.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

I am sure they will be taking credit for any upturn in the economy.

And deny any responsibility on the deficit. That's to be expected.

[mawilson 2,133]

So we can look forward to Congress' witch hunt ritual. I'm sure that'll bring us a vibrant economy and create a lot of jobs. At least the pitch-fork industry should see some added demand.

Probably. At least they are not imposing new taxes while they're busy fighting.

[The_Dude 1,142]

Probably. At least they are not imposing new taxes while they're busy fighting.

That is only because they don't actually have any plan beyond "NO"

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Probably. At least they are not imposing new taxes while they're busy fighting.

I thought they're looking to pass tax cut legislation to reverse the tax hikes effective 01 Jan 2011 which they imposed back in 2001 and 2003.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

That is only because they don't actually have any plan beyond "NO"

"NO" is a great plan.

[The_Dude 1,142]

"NO" is a great plan.

NO it's not.

[Ban Hammer 13,399]

"They didn't like the spending. They didn't like the debt. They didn't like the health care bill. And they wanted to have a mid-course correction. And that's what they voted for."

so who's outta touch with the voters then if he insists we have that?

NO it's not.

glad to see you're a republican now.