OPINION:
Congress will convene soon as a convention of lame ducks, and ducks usually don’t do much. Five senators who were just escorted to the door will have the opportunity to cast one last vote for Harry Reid. The Republicans should know better than to allow these disgruntled few to make mischief. They’ll clock out at the first opportunity.
Government funding runs out Dec. 11, and Congress can’t go home until it passes another continuing resolution. Budget showdowns have grown passe, so this one won’t excite anyone but the government accountants. A moratorium on Internet-access taxes expires Dec. 11, too, and “tax extender” tax credits must be renewed by the ducks before businesses (and some individuals) start working on their tax returns. The only controversy here is the windmill subsidy known as the “production tax credit.” Mr. Reid wants it, Republicans want to blow it away. Only cronies will cry.
The ducks will probably punt in December, leaving it to Mitch McConnell when he takes charge with nine newly minted senators, all elected with a mandate to prevent President Obama from dragging an unwilling country further to the left. It’s hard to say whether the severely diminished Mr. Reid would survive a challenge for minority leader from Charles E. Schumer of New York, a feisty partisan who’s been angling for the top spot since before he was elected in New York.
With his majority strengthened by 13 new members, House Speaker John A. Boehner made clear on Thursday that Republicans won’t be pushed around anymore. “My job is to listen to the American people and make their priorities our priorities,” he told reporters.
Atop the speaker’s to-do list is Obamacare, the anchor around the necks of Democrats on Election Day. Mr. Boehner will send the Senate a full repeal of the president’s health care takeover, but Mr. McConnell will have a difficult time finding the 60 votes needed to pass it. Democrats facing tight races for re-election in 2016, including Michael Bennet of Colorado, Patty Murray of Washington, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Mr. Reid himself, will be forced to vote with the Republicans or go on record as saving Obamacare.
When repeal fails, as it surely will, given the president’s veto authority, Republicans will turn to dismantling Obamacare piece by piece, starting with the Independent Payment Advisory Board, which rations medical treatments, empowering bureaucrats to decide whose lives are worth saving. Mr. Boehner and Mr. McConnell can probably find enough Democratic votes to repeal that and other indefensible provisions, including the tax on medical devices, the individual mandate, the provisions that encourage part-time work and the abortion mandate on religious organizations.
This will put Mr. Obama in a tough position of defending his personal vanity by vetoing bills that passed with bipartisan support, which would drag his approval rating further underwater, or sign the bills that would eviscerate his signature legislative accomplishment.
Next up on the agenda is exploiting America’s energy renaissance by approving construction of the Keystone XL pipeline and expediting U.S. energy-export permits. Mr. Obama has never directly opposed the pipeline; he just assigned grunions to sit on the application or order time-wasting studies. He might decide he has to sign it, since vulnerable Democrats won’t any longer agree to oppose a known job creator.
House Republicans passed 46 jobs bills that have been interred in Mr. Reid’s graveyard. They’ll come back to life in the next session of Congress, certain to haunt a White House that has grown accustomed to doing not very much. With the demotion of Mr. Reid, Mr. Obama will have to spend more time in the Oval Office and more time on Capitol Hill. His golf score, whatever it is, won’t ever be the same again.
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