The 112th session of the U.S. Congress convenes Wednesday in Washington, D.C., with a new Republican majority in the House of Representatives and a strengthened Republican minority in the Senate. Many of the new Republican lawmakers are promising to cut government spending and try to repeal President Barack Obama's signature accomplishment, sweeping health-care reform legislation passed last year.
A total of 87 new Republican House members will be sworn in Wednesday. Many of them are young Tea Party activists, supporters of a very limited role for government and low taxes, and they say they want to change the way things are done in Washington.
星期三将有87名新任共和党国会议员宣誓就职。其中很多人都是年轻的茶党活动人士，他们支持大量限制政府职能，降低税率。他们还说希望能够改变华盛顿做事的方式。
Incoming Republican Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania told the CBS News program "Face the Nation" he experienced culture shock when he arrived.
来自宾夕法尼亚州的共和党议员迈克.凯利在美国哥伦比亚广播公司“面向全国”节目中说，他抵达华盛顿之后感受到了文化冲击。
"My early time here in this city, it is so different than where I come from, because I live in a real world where people actually have to use their own money to pay for things," said Kelly. "So, this idea that you can keep doing this or doing that ... and I love this fact that 'We are going to pay for it.' 'We' are not paying for anything, not 'we' in Washington. The people, the American taxpayer pays for everything. And that is what bothers me, there is such a disconnect between this town and the rest of the world."
他说：“我来到这座城市不久，这跟我的家乡差别巨大。因为我生活的是一个真实的世界，那里人们付帐是要花自己的钱的。所以，这种你可以不断做这做那的想法......以及‘我们会付帐’的现实我很喜欢。但是，‘我们’不会为所有东西付帐，这个‘我们’不是在华盛顿的‘我们’，是人民。美国纳税人要为一切付帐。这是让我担心的地方，华盛顿和世界其他地方是如此脱节。”
Democratic lawmaker Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida told CBS the election campaign is over and Republicans need to stop talking about the "real world" and embrace the hard work of actually governing.
"What remains to be seen is whether members like Mike Kelly are going to be able to turn their essentially campaign rhetoric into some kind of reality," said Wasserman.
On Wednesday outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the first female Speaker of the House in U.S. history, is expected to hand the gavel over to John Boehner, a veteran Republican lawmaker from Ohio. She strongly defended the accomplishments of the outgoing Democrat-controlled Congress, saying she has no regrets.
星期三，即将离任的众议院第一位女议长佩洛西预计将把议长的锤子交给资深的俄亥俄州共和党议员约翰.贝纳。佩洛西为即将下台的民主党控制的国会强烈辩护，表示她没有任何遗憾。
"Now as we keep job creation front and center, House Democrats will continue to protect the gains we have made on behalf of health and economic security for the American people," said Pelosi. "Both in terms of the health care reform bill and the Wall Street reform bill, both of which gives leverage to America's working family."
她说：“现在我们把创造工作机会当作首要和中心问题，众议院的民主党人将继续保护我们为美国人民的健康和经济安全所做出的成就。具体来说就是健保改革议案和华尔街改革议案，这两个议案的受益者都是美国的工薪家庭。”
Political analyst Norman Ornstein of the conservative American Enterprise Institute said the new Tea Party Republican members will be under tremendous pressure from their constituents to cut government spending.
保守派智库美国企业研究所的政治分析人士诺曼.奥恩斯坦说，新的茶党共和党议员将在削减政府开支方面受到巨大的压力。
"For many of their constituents, there is this deep-seated belief that all of Washington is waste, fraud and abuse and you can eliminate deficits and have the debt melt away magically if you just get rid of that waste, fraud and abuse and it will not hurt any of us at all," said Ornstein. "That does not fit a reality out there."
他说：“在他们所有的议程中，有一个很深的观念，那就是华盛顿一直在浪费、欺诈和滥用资金。而只是通过消除这些浪费、欺诈和滥用，你就能够消除赤字，并且债务也会神奇地消失，同时也不会伤害任何人。这种想法跟事实并不相符。”
Ornstein says Republicans have staked out their agenda - to block or repeal President Obama's policies and to try to prevent his re-election in the 2012 presidential race.
奥恩斯坦说，共和党已经定出他们的议程，即阻碍或废除奥巴马总统的政策，并且阻止他在2012年的总统选举中连任。
"We know the agenda that the incoming majority in the House has. It includes serious efforts week after week to demolish or roll back the health care bill," added Ornstein. "It includes investigations, very large numbers of them. The new incoming chairman that does most of the oversight and investigations says that he wants his seven subcommittees each to hold two hearings a week, which could amount to several-hundred hearings, of waste, fraud and abuse, scandal and the like."
Republican leaders in the House say they will vote to repeal health-care reform before President Obama holds his annual State of the Union address later this month.
众议院的共和党领袖说，他们将在奥巴马在本月晚些时候发布年度国情咨文之前，投票废除健保改革议案。
Efforts to repeal the reform are likely to fail because the Democrats still hold the Senate majority and Republicans would need two-thirds of all senators to overcome a presidential veto. But Republicans may succeed in efforts to cut off funding for implementation.
共和党试图废除健保议案的努力很可能失败，原因是民主党仍然控制着参议院多数，而共和党需要三分之二的参议院多数来推翻总统否决。但是共和党可能能够阻止为施行该议案拨款。 |