112th Congress convenes with Boehner as Speaker

As the 112th United States Congress resumed today, Republican lawmakers cheered as Ohio Congressman John Boehner filled the post as the new Speaker of the House, replacing Democrat Nancy Pelosi, who proved herself worthy as perhaps the worst House Speaker this country has ever had. Under her reign over two years of the Bush Administration and two years of the Obama Administration, Congress has for the most part achieved nothing, except for play rubber stamps and continue to spend money into oblivion, thus moving this country to the brink of near bankruptcy.

So with Mr. Boehner as Speaker, Americans are trying to appear optimistic and hope for a sense of real change that Congress can finally move forward and actually get work done.

But it appears that a blood bath is already lying ahead. Republican leaders are already vowing to repeal Obama's controversial Health Care Law and are wanting to investigate the Obama Administration's rather unethical efforts in the last two years. Of course, I sincerely doubt that Republicans will be successful in repealing the Health Care Law, because the Senate is still controlled by the Democrats and President Obama can always veto the bill and they don't have the necessary 2/3rds majority to override a veto by the President.

Nonetheless, I would give Republican lawmakers a great deal of credit if they do move forward on attempting to repeal the law. The bill is largely unfavorable among most Americans and they simply cannot afford it. Personally, I would have supported a public option but not a mandate that every American has to buy health insurance. It is obvious that there are some provisions in the bill that are good and some that are clearly bad.

But Americans are hoping the top priority of the new 112th Congress will be fixing the economy and many of them are not looking forward to more of the same political bickering among Democrats and Republicans. They want wasteful government spending cut and more transparency in their government, something that both now-former Speaker Pelosi and President Obama failed to fulfill in the last two years.

There will be some new changes in the Congress when it does come to transparency in government. For example, Congressman Ron Paul will be chairing the House Monetary Policy Committee and will most likely have stronger oversight and a chance to audit the Federal Reserve, which is something people have been waiting far too long for.

Here's to a new year in American politics.

Hopefully this year, work will be done for once.