THESE ARE changing times in the US Congress. Even before the new Republican majority moves in to take over the House of Representatives, the chill winds of Tea Party populist puritanism are beginning to blow and even the party’s old guard leadership has reluctantly begun to embrace the new mood. On Monday Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, renowned as one of the most assiduous pork barrel politicians, announced he will support a ban on the earmarking of Bills, the costly and widespread practice of attaching unrelated constituency spending projects to any and every Bill.
The tone may be different but the initiative does little to address the real challenges faced by the president in the “lame duck” congressional session that opened this week between the midterms and the installation of the new intake in the new year. On a range of issues, from tax to welfare and a key nuclear treaty, Democrats and Republicans remain deadlocked and largely inured to presidential appeals for bipartisanship.
Most crucially, Congress faces a series of pressing deadlines on fiscal and economic policy. Emergency unemployment benefits expire at the end of the month unless renewed, potentially cutting payments by a quarter to up to three million. This is not a problem to Republicans, but they are also fighting to prevent the White House from allowing to lapse in the new year Bush-era tax cuts which slashed rates on income, capital gains and dividends, among other concessions.
Mr Obama, who has wavered on his pledge to abolish the breaks for millionaires, wants to “decouple” the upper-income cuts from those that benefit the middle class by extending them for different periods of time. At a time of a ballooning deficit, keeping the Bush rates for all taxpayers will cost some $4 trillion over 10 years – $700 billion to retain the top rates. A compromise will be difficult to forge but a commitment to extending unemployment benefits might be the basis of a deal on tax cuts.
A priority for Mr Obama is also the ratification of the Start nuclear arms agreement with Russia, one of his only foreign policy successes and key to the warming relations between the two countries. The vote on the treaty, which will reduce deployed warheads to 1,550 on either side and provides for the resumption of mutual inspections, requires two-thirds support, is unlikely to be forthcoming in the next session. The vote is being held up because of demands by Arizona’s Jon Kyl for $180 billion to modernise the rest of the US nuclear arsenal. The Senate will also be asked to back a Bill abolishing the army’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays.
For Mr Obama, his eyes now firmly on the prize of re-election, the challenge is to retake the political initiative and to move beyond his apologetic response to the midterms, his promises to listen more and explain better. He needs vigorously to wield the powers he still has as president, his “bully pulpit”, his veto, his Senate majority, to show the American people he can still govern and remind them why they voted for him. The fight back must start in the “lame duck” session.