Yesterday, the new House of Representatives were sworn into office. On today’s docket, the largest Republican majority in almost a century began discussing three key programs to increase jobs.
First, the Keystone XL Pipeline was discussed. It will create construction and some American jobs by piping oil from Canada’s tar sands down to refineries in Texas. Those against it claim the oil will all go to China, and will just increase pollution, because tar sand oil is by far the dirtiest oil around (by their claims).
Second, help vets get jobs by allowing those who receive Tricare or VA benefits to work for a company without being counted in the numbers a company hires for health care ACA/Obamacare reasons. IOW, if a company has 49 workers and does not want to be affected by Obamacare’s requirements with the 50th worker, it can hire several vets that have health benefits and not have it counted against them.
Third, the ACA/Obamacare currently establishes full time as 30 years or more. So those working part time are now receiving less hours, so that companies can keep them under the 30 hour health care requirement. The Republicans will push to get it moved back up to 40 hours, helping those working part time jobs (mostly affects women).
t is clear that the Republican House is interested in passing laws that will hopefully help Americans. In the past, Harry Reid’s Senate has stalled, holding off voting (or even hearing) over 300 bills sent to them by the House. With a new Republican Senate, we hopefully will see a Congress that’s interested in reducing government encroachment in all areas of our lives.
While a good start, the question will be whether the Republicans seek to make big changes in the future. Will they cave when it comes time to increase the deficit? Will they cave when it comes time to face down the exploding budget? Will they expand their favorite groups at the expense of our freedoms?
The last time we had a Republican Congress and a Democratic President, Bill Clinton was able to balance the budget, change welfare to workfare, and move our nation to the center. “The day of big government is over” did not last long, as Bush and Obama have created twice the deficit all previous presidents created. Obama is not Clinton (or Reagan or Carter), and is more of an ideologue. .He may stand firm against Republican efforts to stream line government. Will they stand against him, or cave?