WASHINGTON — US Republicans, fired-up by their elections romp, vowed to slash government spending and target President Barack Obama's signature health care overhaul with an eye on defeating him in 2012.
Obama, warning "we can't afford two years of just squabbling," announced he had invited top congressional Republicans and Democrats to the White House on November 18 to seek ways to work together after Tuesday's ballot-box rebuke.
"I think it's clear that the voters sent a message, which is they want us to focus on the economy and jobs and moving this country forward," the president said on Thursday as he met with his cabinet to adjust to Washington's new reality.
Republicans claimed a popular mandate against Obama's agenda after riding a wave of anger at the sour economy and joblessness near 10 percent to retake the House of Representatives and slice deep into the Democrats' Senate majority.
The party's congressional leaders vowed to roll back Obama's sweeping health care overhaul as well as government regulations they said stifled business; cut government spending and taxes; and investigate the administration.
"None of this is to say that Republicans have given up cooperating with the president," said Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, but "if the administration wants cooperation, it will have to begin to move in our direction."
Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner, sure to replace Democrat Nancy Pelosi as House speaker, delivered a similarly take-no-prisoners message as he unveiled a sweeping "Pillars of a New Majority" statement of principles.
"President Obama must decide whether he will heed the will of the people and work with us to address their concerns, or continue on a path the people have rejected," said Boehner.
The president, vowing to rein in government spending and draw poisonous rhetoric from the body politic, insisted his upcoming pow-wow with congressional leaders would not be a staged show of cooperation.
"This is going to be a meeting in which I want us to talk substantively about how we can move the American people's agenda forward. It's not just going to be a photo-op," he promised.
McConnell, speaking at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, fiercely defended his recent comments that the top Republican goal must be to deny Obama a second term in the 2012 elections.
"It would be foolish to expect that Republicans will be able to completely reverse the damage Democrats have done as long as a Democrat holds the veto pen," he said in a speech.
McConnell echoed other top Republicans in vowing to target Obama's signature health care overhaul for repeal -- a top priority of the arch-conservative "Tea Party" movement that helped power the party's election romp.
McConnell called for holding votes on a repeal "repeatedly" -- a move sure to infuriate Democrats -- but acknowledged that Obama's veto pen meant wholesale undoing of the law was impossible.
So the Kentucky Republican vowed to target individual measures, and to wield "smart, aggressive oversight" -- often a code word for investigations -- to rein in the administration on other fronts.
The number-two House Republican, Eric Cantor, released a 22-page blueprint calling for broad government spending cuts, rolling back regulations he said stifled business, and a ban on funding for pet projects known as "earmarks".
"We will drain the swamp rather than learning to swim with the alligators," said Cantor, who is due to become House majority leader when the new Congress convenes in January.
The Democrats got some measure of relief from their dreadful showing when Washington state's incumbent Senator Patty Murray managed to hold on to her hotly contested seat.
She was finally declared the winner Thursday, giving her party some breathing room in its majority in the 100-seat Senate, with 51 Democrats plus two independents who caucus with the Democrats.
But Obama's party was hammered in the House, where Republicans gained some 60 seats, the largest swing in the chamber in decades.
Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs hinted at a possible compromise in the battle over extending tax cuts due to expire on January 1, saying the White House would reject "permanently" extending rates cuts on the wealthiest Americans.
That suggested the White House, which had previously said it would only agree to extend cuts for middle-class Americans, could accept a temporary extension for the highest earners.
Boehner immediately shot down the offer, telling Fox News he would not support "temporary extensions and other gimmicks".
(source:afp)
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