GOP officially takes the House; Pledges to make good on promises to repeal health law, slash spending

Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, was sworn in Tuesday as the new Speaker of the House of Representatives, kicking off a GOP agenda that press reports say will set the tone for the 2012 election. High on the Republican's priority list is undoing the the health law. Another important element of their plan will have to do with how they handle efforts to address government spending.

The Washington Post: House Republicans Adopt New Rules For Tax And Spending Legislation
After four years out of power, Republicans seized control of the House with gusto on Wednesday, adopting a passel of new rules designed to make it easier to keep their campaign promises to cut taxes, repeal President Obama's health-care law and slash government spending (Montgomery, 1/5).

Bloomberg: House Republicans Scale Back U.S. Budget Cut Promise, Bend Spending Rules
Republicans, who won control of the U.S. House with pledges to slash the federal budget deficit, are already under fire for backpedaling on their promises. They say they intend to cut spending this fiscal year by about $60 billion, not the $100 billion they promised during last year's campaign as part of their "Pledge to America." Republicans decided that they will ignore budget analysts' estimate that a vote to repeal the administration's health-care overhaul would add billions to the deficit. And yesterday, they weakened the House's anti-deficit budgeting rules to make it easier to approve tax cuts that would add to the shortfall (Faler, 1/6).

Los Angeles Times: House Republicans To Set The Tone For 2012
The new Republican agenda, much of it to be acted on over the next few days and weeks, include House votes seeking to repeal last year's health care overhaul and sharp cuts — as much as 20% — in domestic spending, particularly for social programs and regulatory regimes favored by Democrats. The aggressive agenda is in contrast to the previous Congress, in which Republicans — outnumbered in both the House and Senate — became the "party of no," determined to block Democratic proposals (West, 1/5).

PBS News Hour: Health Care Reform In 2011: What To Watch
Republicans officially take control of the House today, and a vote to repeal the health care reform law is at the top of their agenda. But with President Obama in the White House and a Democratic-controlled Senate, any House repeal vote will likely be symbolic — the repeal effort is unlikely to advance any further, and provisions of the law scheduled to go into effect this year will continue on course. With that in mind, Hari Sreenivasan talks to Kaiser Health News reporter Mary Agnes Carey about some of the changes you might see in 2011. The reporters at Kaiser Health News wrote this detailed review of the upcoming changes (Winerman, 1/5).