Will the GOP take governing seriously?
Probably not. Take, for example, this news article by Liz Goodwin:
Even as he rued an Election Day "shellacking," President Obama seemed hopeful in his post-midterms press conference yesterday that Democrats and Republicans may find common ground on education legislation, if not much else. The Washington Post’s Nick Anderson examined that wish in a story today, focusing on the handful of newly elected Republican candidates who ran on a pledge to abolish the Department of Education — a position that doesn’t exactly bode well for interparty cooperation on the issue.
Soon-to-be Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky, Rob Portman of Ohio, and Mike Lee of Utah have supported initiatives in the past to abolish the DOE or stated their support for the department’s abolition. At least 15 new House members have as well.
But GOP Rep. John Kline of Minnesota, the soon-to-be-ranking member of the House’s education and labor committee, dismissed talk that the new Congress will make it a priority to dismantle the Education Department.
"In some ways, that’s sort of a talking point," Kline told Anderson. "There will be those who campaigned on that language. I’m not sure they always know what it means."
Even so, Republican leadership will be under great pressure from new and old members of the 112th Congress to cut federal spending, and education spending will almost certainly fall under that mandate.
Continue reading. It’s a "talking point"?? What does that mean?
