Fired-up Obama foes take over the US House

REPUBLICANS officially took control of the House of Representatives yesterday, seeking to rein in President Barack Obama’s agenda, with an eye on defeating his 2012 bid for a White House second term.

Top Republicans have vowed to slash spending, scrap “job-killing” government regulations, overhaul the tax code, crack down on undocumented immigration, cut diplomatic and foreign aid funds, and investigate the administration.

They have already scheduled a January 12 vote on repealing Obama’s signature overhaul of US healthcare — a purely symbolic step because the Democratic Senate majority can block it and the president still holds a veto.

Yesterday Democrat Nancy Pelosi handed the Speaker’s gavel she has held for four years to Republican John Boehner, whose party rode US voter anger at high joblessness to a rout in November elections.

“The American people have humbled us,” Boehner said as Congress’s freshman class was sworn in.

Boehner said that the American people “have reminded us that everything here is on loan from them,” and that voters seek “a government that is honest, accountable and responsible to their needs”.

But “hard work and tough decisions” will be required of the 112th Congress, he said.

Incoming Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, meanwhile, shrugged off Democratic plans to use their majority in the US Senate majority — now whittled down to just 53 of the 100 seats — to block legislation that Republicans succeed in muscling through the House.

“The Senate can serve as a cul-de-sac if that’s what it wants to be,” Cantor said. “They’ll have to answer to the American people.”

Democrats have meanwhile argued that Americans want bipartisan cooperation to help pull the country out of its economic slump.

“The American people want common-sense solutions to help middle-class Americans make ends meet, not extremist political stunts,” said Jon Summers, a spokesman for Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Among the first Republican-driven moves, the US Constitution will be read on the House floor today as representatives begin their first full work day.

Republicans aimed to set the tone ahead of Obama’s annual State of the Union speech due in late January, a high-profile chance to retool his presidency in the wake of what he has called a ballot-box “shellacking”.

Cantor said he hoped Obama would unveil proposals to cut spending and major reform of the US tax code, calling those “opportunities for us to work together”.

As he headed back to Washington after a year-end vacation, Obama said he expected the normal rough-and-tumble of politics to resume, with Republicans playing to their conservative base, but warned American voters expected action.

“I’m pretty confident that they’re going to recognise that our job is to govern and make sure that we are delivering jobs for the American people and that we’re creating a competitive economy for the 21st century — not just for this generation, but the next one,” Obama told reporters.

He returned to Washington after scoring high-profile victories in a year-end session, including ratification of a landmark nuclear arms control deal with Russia.