WASHINGTON, November 5 (RIA Novosti) — The US Congress is facing two years of stalemate following the outcome of the midterm elections on November 4, Gerald Friedman, professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst told RIA Novosti Tuesday.
“From this outcome we might anticipate another two years of partisan gridlock,” Friedman said.
Republicans are projected to maintain a majority in the US House of Representatives as well as to win control of the Senate, according to the latest reports.
Friedman noted that while they will not have large enough majorities to govern against President Barack Obama, the Republican-led Congress will send up "veto bait" and exploit wedge issues to try to discredit the Democrats, Obama and his likely successor, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The professor stressed that the republicans will have to manage their internal divisions with “firebrands, such as Senator Cruz of Texas, looking to force dramatic policy changes on the country through threats of additional government shutdowns and possibly even default on the Federal government debt.”
“If the Republican leadership fails to reign in their extremists, we may even see a move by parts of the business community towards the Democrats as the only party of responsible government,” he stated.
According to Amherst, a Republican congress will prevent any effective fiscal policy, forcing austerity policies on the United States just when the world economy needs more stimulus.
“They will also go through the ritual, again, of repealing the Affordable Care Act,” he added. “If it were repealed, no state would suffer worse than Mitch McConnell's Kentucky."
On Tuesday, Americans voted in the midterm elections to elect 435 members of the House of Representatives, 36 senators, 36 governors and 46 state legislatures. The vote was to determine which of the two US political parties will take control of the Congress for the next two years.
