It's not as easy as it looks

With a month under their belt as the controlling party in the US House of Representatives, Republicans are struggling to deal with the myriad of problems our country is faced with including debt, unemployment, poverty, health care and pollution.

What they have managed to do is promote a hodgepodge of budget cuts that do not add up to a significant portion of the deficit and endanger many of the government initiatives that actually create jobs. They also have refused to end corporate welfare to oil companies.

What the past 4 weeks have shown is a congress that shows little, if any, intention on delivering on their campaign promises, likely because they do not want to take the political risk of slashing funding for defense, medicare and social security.

Instead, the GOP is turning to their classic wedge issues. Abortion being the most obvious. Using language that not-so-subtly hides their efforts to eliminate pregnant women's access to reproductive medicine, the House Republicans are targeting funding for pre-natal services to American mothers.

They also have brought Christianity back into the government, spending lengthy debate time (time your tax money is funding) on discussing re-affirming "In God We Trust" as the United States motto.

Finally, to pay lip service to the groups that actually got them elected, a handful of legislators formed a fledgling 'Tea Party Caucus' on capitol hill in a blatant publicity stunt - whether the populist Tea Party movement wanted them to do this or not is a matter still up for debate.

I don't think it is fair to accuse the GOP of lolly-gagging or being dishonest in this case. I think they've run up against the reality that their policy positions do not really offer a solution to the problems that the United States faces right now, and that only bipartisan compromise to make tough budgetary decisions.