House GOP fights back against Obama

NY Times:

 President Obama may be running against Congressional Republicans in his re-election campaign, but they intend to run right back against him.

At their annual retreat here, House Republicans outlined an agenda quite similar to the one that drove their first year as the House majority, saying they would pursue bills that would vigorously rework the Medicare program, dismantle regulations they find stifling to business and champion an oil pipeline that the White House has rejected.

“I’ve asked every member of every committee to look at the president’s policies,” said House Speaker John A. Boehner, “and help the American people understand and help, frankly, other members of Congress understand the devastating impact of these policies on our economy.”

While several members said they had come to realize that they would probably not have a willing partner in Senate Democrats for their legislative efforts this year — a fact that seemed to elude them for much of last year — they said they would continue to showcase their policy preferences as a contrast to, and often rebuke of, the president, who has said he will spend the next year targeting them from his campaign bully pulpit.

Overhaul of the Medicare program remains a priority. “Our point is — fix it now, do it on our terms,” said Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the architect of the House budget.

Republicans, undaunted by the payroll tax holiday debacle that hurt their conference last month, said that they were considering using the Keystone XL Pipeline as a chip in the next round of negotiations over the tax break, as part of their overall efforts to push back against White House policies this year.

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There is more.

Keystone is an easy target since Obama's position is so Unpopular with voters.  Only his kook base supports his blocking of the pipeline and they are a small minority of voters.  This one move will lose the independents for him.  Energy is not a minor issue and Obama is already on the defensive as his first misleading ad shows.

Republicans need to do a better job of pushing back against Obama and his media cohorts on the other issues that separate them.  Obama's outrageous and ridiculous budgets need to be attacked for what they are.  They should also go after the irresponsible Senate Democrats who are going nearly a thousand days without passing a budget, because they do not want to give evidence to the voters of their irresponsibility.