The US Capitol building is seen in Washington, DC, on Nov 8, 2022. [Photo/Agencies]
Even if Democrats hold the Senate, a Republican-controlled House for the next two years could disrupt US President Joe Biden's legislative agenda and presage a new era of gridlock, according to a new analysis by The New York Times.
Internal affairs and diplomacy
In highly polarized times, it is exceedingly difficult to pass legislation unless one party controls the presidency, the House and the Senate, according to The New York Times.
If Republicans win either the House or the Senate, they can prevent much of what Biden and the Democrats would hope to accomplish before the 2024 presidential election, such as blocking Democratic efforts to codify abortion rights and take action toward climate change, it added.
"Republicans can use their majority power to block any bills passed by the Democratic Senate from even getting a vote on the House floor", wrote The Guardian in a new analysis.
In foreign affairs, it will also be up in the air whether the US will continue to send aid to Ukraine after the Republicans take control of the House of Representatives. Representative Kevin McCarthy, the top House Republican, said in October that if his party wins a majority, its members would resist giving a "blank check" to Ukraine, according to The New York Times.
Investigation and impeachment
Members-elect from the US House of Representatives pose for a group photo outside of the US Capitol building in Washington, on Nov 15, 2022. [Photo/Agencies]
"Given their very narrow majority, House Republicans may have trouble advancing major legislation through the chamber. Even if they are able to pass something, the bill would almost certainly fail in the Democratic Senate, so it seems likely House Republicans will focus most of their attention on investigations and executive oversight", wrote The Guardian in a new analysis.
Investigating the Biden family will be the first order of business, top Republicans announced Thursday just hours after clinching the House majority, The Associated Press reported.
House Republicans are also poised to launch several investigations into the Biden administration, including the botched US withdrawal from Afghanistan, COVID-19 vaccine mandates and allegations of politicization at the Justice Department, CNN reported.
"Oversight is a primary function of the Congress, and for the last two years there has been no oversight of the Biden agenda and the Biden administration," Jim Banks, a Republican congressman from Indiana, told Fox News Sunday.
Some Republicans have also pledged to impeach Biden, as Donald Trump did for separate impeachments in 2020 and 2021, The New York Times reported.
However many experts believe they will think twice before launching impeachment proceedings because Republicans have only a razor-thin margin, AFP reported.
Public opinions ignored
People line up in the rain to vote at a tent in a shopping center parking lot in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Nov 8, 2022. [Photo/Agencies]
One reason why Election Day's results were inconclusive is that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans sent a midterm message sufficiently compelling to dominate this election and to win over voters who were not already locked into their partisan bunkers, CNN reported.
Both parties need to listen to what the electorates really want – a possibly forlorn hope.
About three-quarters of voters said they were dissatisfied or angry about the way things are going in the US, and a similar share called the economy "not so good" or "poor", according to the preliminary results of the exit polls conducted for CNN and other news networks by Edison Research on Nov 8.
According to CNN, the midterm campaign was notable for how neither Republicans nor Democrats fully embraced the frustrations of voters. Democrats seemed to downplay angst over inflation and ignored concerns over crime and the border. Many Republicans obsessed over vote fraud falsehoods and laying plans to investigate Biden.
The US is almost perfectly divided between Democrats and Republicans and neither party can cobble together an effective majority, according to an analysis by The Guardian.
The 2022 midterms are, on the surface, a win for Democrats, but from a deeper perspective they have simply ratified the status quo of the US as a divided and divisive country, it added.
A Republican takeover of either or both chambers would extend one of the defining trends of modern politics: Neither party has held the White House and Congress for more than four consecutive years since 1968, according to CNN.
Republican gaining Election Day would simply continue a long-standing tendency toward instability in US political system. The election could also ratchet that instability to a combustible new level, CNN reported.
Where will the US go in the next two years, facing political polarization, social rifts, persistent inflation and popular discontent?
