Analysts Don't Believe 'Much Will Come Out' of New US Congress Work

The US House and Senate are due to meet Tuesday at noon to mark the beginning of the 118th Congress, which will work amid the final two years of Joe Biden's presidency and wrap up on January 3, 2025.

With the first session of a new US Congress expected later in the day, Lisa Haven, a libertarian commentator, radio host and alternative media news analyst, told Sputnik that she doesn’t believe “much will come of it.”

“What we will see is the allusion of major investigations that will succumb to the launch of special interest and dark money and result in nothing,” she argued.

Haven added that although Republicans previously pledged to investigate the FBI and Fauci, "without the support of the Senate and the executive branch they will be frivolous investigations.”

She was referring to developments in August, when top Republicans in Congress vowed that if they retake the majority in the November midterm election, they will grill Anthony Fauci, the US’ leading infectious disease expert about his role during the COVID pandemic. Fauci stepped down as head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden on December 31.

Haven recalled that “Republicans also promised to defund the 87K new IRS [Internal Revenue Service] agents, yet this year they passed the Omnibus bill funding them.” She slammed the move as a “complete contradiction to what they promised, showing they simply do not care,” adding, “Therefore, I don’t have much faith in their promise.”

In late December, Biden inked the $1.7 trillion omnibus government spending bill passed by Congress earlier this month, which will fund the work of the government in 2023 and avert a government shutdown.

When asked what steps the new Congress will take to deal with inflation, the radio host said that she doesn’t believe “they will do anything.”

“Even with Republicans taking the majority [in the House] this year. Considering they signed the overinflated Omnibus bill just prior to taking office, when they could have waited. They continued to support their special interest funding, rather than focus on the inflation problem that Americans are facing,” Haven said.

Michael Shannon, a political commentator and Newsmax columnist, for his part said in an interview with Sputnik that “the first newsworthy item” on the new Senate’s agenda “will be the election of the Speaker of the House.”

“Rep. Kevin McCarthy thinks the job should go to him by right, but a band of real conservatives in the House disagree. McCarthy’s majority is so small that five votes can defeat him. So, the fight over Speaker will be the first item of business,” according to Shannon.

He suggested that “After that the Republican House will investigate the Biden administration and may punish Democrat members by denying some committee assignments. Much depends on who is the Speaker. The weak McCarthy will do less, a real America First Republican will do more,” the Newsmax columnist argued.

He was apparently referring to the fact Republicans earlier promised to hold Biden accountable over his family's business dealings, including those of Hunter Biden, as well as POTUS’ policies at the US’ southern border, which led to the migration crisis.

Asked about the new Congress’s possible steps to tame inflation, Shannon claimed that Congress “can always cross partisan divides to spend money.”

According to him, “that will increase inflation, but those self–interested politicians could care less. Look for increases in welfare to ‘battle’ inflation and possibly another cost–of–living increase for Social Security.”

The remarks come amid media reports that the work of the 118th Congress, packed with 222 Republicans and 212 Democrats, may be hampered by gridlock. As a result of the November 8 US midterm election, GOP members won control of the House for the first time since the 115th Congress, while the Democrats gained one seat in the Senate, expanding their majority from 50–50 to 51–49.