WASHINGTON: A day after the Republicans gained full control of both chamber of the US Congress, the party leadership outlined their agenda centered around job creation and economy.
In an op-ed the House of Representative Speaker John Boehner and incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that they would move towards repealing Obamacare – the signature legislative achievement of US President Barack Obama – arguing that this will have an adverse impact on jobs.
In their joint op-ed to The Wall Street Journal, the two top Republican leadership listing out their priorities said they plan to address head-on many of the most pressing challenges facing the country, including the insanely complex tax code that is driving American jobs overseas; health costs and a savage global terrorist threat.
The Republican controlled Congress, they said, would also take heed on an education system that denies choice to parents and denies a good education to too many children.
“We’ll also consider legislation to help protect and expand America’s emerging energy boom and to support innovative charter schools around the country,” they said.
“These bills include measures authorizing the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which will mean lower energy costs for families and more jobs for American workers; the Hire More Heroes Act, legislation encouraging employers to hire more of our nation’s veterans; and a proposal to restore the traditional 40-hour definition of full-time employment, removing an arbitrary and destructive government barrier to more hours and better pay created by the Affordable Care Act of 2010,” they wrote.
“Will these bills single-handedly turn around the economy? No. But taking up bipartisan bills aimed at helping the economy that have already passed the House is a sensible and obvious first step. More good ideas aimed at helping the American middle class will follow,” they said.
“We will restore an era in which committees in both the House and Senate conduct meaningful oversight of federal agencies and develop and debate legislation; and where members of the minority party in both chambers are given the opportunity to participate in the process of governing,” Boehner and McConnell wrote. –PTI