After the midterm elections –What’s next for Congress?
Nov. 6, 2014
Ken Bickers
When the 114th Congress convenes January 3, 2015, speculation abounds as
to what legislation the Republican-controlled Congress will try to pass.
One of the first things that seems to be on the minds of many people, says
Ken Bickers, a professor of political science at CU-Boulder, is repealing the
Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. But, Bickers says, not so fast.
CUT “I don’t think that there is a sense among Republicans that they are going to be
able to repeal Obamacare in the next two years. McConnell has clearly signaled that.
Congressman Gardner, now Senator Gardner, has clearly signaled that he doesn’t
think that there will be repeal in the next two years. (:17) When that president’s
name is on the bill that you are trying to repeal and that president has two more
years they’re not going to be able to repeal it.” (:22)
On the other hand, Bickers says what you will see are attempts to weaken
Obamacare by repealing various parts of it.
CUT 2 “They are going to try to peal off particular parts of it where repeal will be
popular and where there’s likely to be some bipartisan support and where the
president’s going to be put in a very difficult position to veto or sign it and then
waiting for a new presidency and a new opportunity after the 2016 election.” (:21)
Bickers believes one of the first significant pieces of legislation to make it
through the Senate and House will be approval of the final phase of the Keystone
Pipeline project because it already had support from a number of Democrats even
before the elections.
CUT 3 “I think Keystone is a done deal at this point because there is bipartisan
support for that. There were enough Democrats that wanted to support Keystone in
the Senate and couldn’t because Harry Reid kept preventing votes from coming up
on Keystone.” (:15)
Bickers says the next two years we should see a lot of legislation being
passed by Congress, but not necessarily bipartisan legislation. That’s because
Republicans are positioning themselves for the 2016 presidential election and will
try to put pressure on their Democratic colleagues so that they will have to answer
to voters two years from now.
CUT 4 “It’s one of the things that majorities get to do is to pass things that are
popular among some voters but unpopular with others and put their colleagues
from the other party in difficult situations. (:10) If they are popular measures among
independent voters but unpopular among the Democratic base we’re going to be
seeing the ads in two years that embarrass or put those Democratic incumbents in a
difficult spot. (:24) Whether or not the president vetoes those measures those
members of Congress are going to have to vote on those issues.” (:29)
-CU-