Obama foes take over US House

US: A tense new era of political power-sharing dawned in Washington on Wednesday as a new US Congress convened with President Barack Obama’s Republican foes in control of the House of Representatives.

Newly minted Republican House Speaker John Boehner warned lawmakers they faced “great challenges” on the economy as his party readied a fresh assault on Obama’s agenda with an eye on thwarting his 2012 reelection bid.

“Hard work and tough decisions will be required” at a time when the US economy is struggling to emerge from the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s, Boehner said in his inaugural address.

The Ohio lawmaker choked tears and wiped his eyes with a handkerchief as he took his new office’s symbolic gavel from Nancy Pelosi, the first woman US speaker and now Democratic minority leader.

Fired-up Republicans also enjoyed a stronger Senate minority thanks to a pack of new conservative members who won office on November 2, when voters angry at the sputtering US economy and high unemployment routed Democrats.

Republicans have vowed to slash spending, scrap “job-killing” government regulations, overhaul the tax code, crack down on undocumented immigration, cut diplomatic and foreign aid funds, and investigate the administration.

Republicans set a January 12 vote on repealing Obama’s signature overhaul of US health care — a purely symbolic step because the Democratic Senate majority can block it and the president can veto it.

But the move represents an effort by Boehner, a two-decade veteran of Washington politics, to please the arch-conservative “Tea Party” activists who fueled big Republican gains and view the legislation as Washington overreach.

“The people voted to end business as usual, and today we begin carrying out their instructions,” said Boehner, 61.

Senate Democrats, captained by Majority Leader Harry Reid, planned to push ahead with rules changes that complicate the minority party’s efforts to kill legislation by delaying it or to anonymously block key nominees.

And they warned Republicans would have to break their lockstep opposition to White House-backed initiatives over the past two years in favor of bipartisan compromise in order to deliver on their campaign pledges. Washington, Thursday, AFP