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Biden will face greater difficulties now that the Republicans will control the House of Representatives.
The “top priority” is to investigate the family of President Joe Biden.
This is what the Republicans said this Thursday shortly following learning that they will retake control of the House of Representatives following the midterm elections in the United States.
The country will have a divided government for the next two years: the Democrats have the White House and the Senate, but Republicans are now in control of the House, vowing to make life difficult for Biden.
“Joe Biden is guilty of committing crimes. And it is time for Congress to PROSECUTE, CONVICT, and REMOVE Biden from power.”
This was recently expressed in an opinion column by congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greeneone of the most radical figures of the Republican Party in the US House of Representatives.
And it is that Greene has been trying to get Congress to impeach President Joe Biden literally since the first day of his government, when he accused him of abuse of power while he was vice president to benefit his son Hunter’s businesses in Ukraine.
Now, with control of the House of Representatives passing to the hands of the Republicans, The possibility of an attempt to initiate an impeachment once morest Biden gains strengthdespite the difficulties involved in this process.
Will the president finally be impeached? And what other things can happen from next January?
1. Impeachment, a difficult process
Impeachment trials are unpopular with Americans, and so far none have prospered.
However, following former President Donald Trump was subjected to two during his only term, they are now a political weapon that might be used more often.
More than half of Republican voters believe there is an option to impeach Biden. Some have been asking for it practically since he won the 2020 elections.
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Republican Congressman James Comer is one of those who advocates investigating the Biden family.
In total, ten Republicans in the House of Representatives have filed or supported a total of 21 articles of impeachment once morest Biden and once morest some of his senior officials since the beginning of his government.
The accusations include a wide variety of alleged crimes, such as the non-enforcement of immigration laws, a failed withdrawal from Afghanistan and bad practices in the management of the covid pandemic.
However, Republicans in leadership positions have tried to reduce the chances of impeachment, distancing themselves from an issue that polarizes and can alienate more moderate sectors of the party.
“I think the country doesn’t like impeachment being used for political purposes,” Republican Kevin McCarthy, who will be the next speaker of the House, said in early October.
McCarthy said this before the election, and from now on pressure will undoubtedly grow from right-wing Republicans and voters to start the process.
Other voices say privately that there do not seem to be sufficient reasons to get entangled in a process that has so far not led to the removal of a president from power and, in fact, tends to increase the popularity of the president in question.
The foreign businesses of Hunter Biden, the president’s son, will also be the focus of his rivals.
“The president’s involvement in the enrichment of his family is, in a word, abuse of the highest order,” Republican Congressman James Comer said Thursday.
Hunter Biden, who does not hold any government position, is under federal investigation, but there are currently no charges once morest him.
2. The end of Biden’s legislative agenda?
In their two years of control of the presidency and Congress, Joe Biden and the Democrats were able to push through a fairly substantial agenda, including heavy investment in the environment, health, and other social programs.
This may end with a Republican victory.
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The Biden administration had several legislative successes, including a gun control law that passed with a vote of some Republicans.
There are possibilities for cooperation. For example, Republicans and Democrats jointly voted on gun control bills, technology investment, and a major infrastructure plan last year.
Nevertheless, issues that are priority for Democrats such as abortion, education and the right to vote will not go ahead.
The Republicans have their own agenda, centered on border security, law and order, a more modest budget and the extraction of fossil fuels.
But Democrats will be able to block legislation from passing in the Senate or the White House with Biden’s veto power.
For the next two years, legislative gridlock will be the norm.
3. Radical turn in congressional investigations
These two years the Democrats have been in control and have launched a deep and extensive investigation into the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
There have also been hearings on issues such as abortion, healthcare and the right to vote.
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The Republicans will seek to close the investigation opened by the Democrats into the attack on Congress on January 6, 2021.
Now with the Republicans in the House, priorities will change rapidly. The most urgent thing will be, as they have announced, to put an end to the committee that investigates the events in the Capitol.
And possibly they will initiate other types of investigations.
In addition to Hunter Biden, they also want to investigate the government’s immigration policies, the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the origins of the pandemic in China.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is charged with overseeing presidential nominations to the federal courts.
The last two years, the Democrats have set a new record for the number of judges appointed to lifetime posts.
4. Government shutdowns
With Democratic control of Congress, the US has gotten temporary relief from the tense game of tug-of-war that has led to government shutdowns and brought the country closer to debt default.
That is regarding to end.
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Disagreements in Congress have led to a partial government shutdown in the US for lack of funding.
Some Republicans, including McCarthy, are already threatening to force Democrats into accepting sweeping budget cuts.
The US has never defaulted on its debt. Nevertheless, partial government shutdowns over the inability of Congress to pass annual spending legislation have become more common. It happened twice under Donald Trump and once under Barack Obama.
If Republicans and Democrats can’t agree on a basic framework for government spending, another shutdown by the end of next year is highly likely.
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