With the GOP in control of the White House and Congress, lawmakers plan to "go big" on goals like repealing Obamacare, cutting taxes and rolling back regulations – even as "deep" differences remain within their own ranks and with President-elect Donald Trump, the Wall Street Journal reported.
According to the Journal, Republicans are divided over trade policy and immigration; GOP leaders have questioned Trump’s resistance to NATO provisions requiring members to defend each other; fiscal conservatives object to raising the debt ceiling; and there's doubts about building a promised border wall.
"The opportunity is to go big, to go bold, to get things done for the people of this country," House Speaker Paul Ryan said a news conference Wednesday, the Journal reported.
Trump has already reached out to the Main Street Partnership, which represents moderate Republicans, to try to reconcile with members who didn't support him, New York GOP Rep. Chris Collins told the Journal.
"Mr. Trump has already shown in his speech he is going to be very magnanimous in victory," Collins said.
According to the Journal, the GOP's legislative wish list includes dismantling the Obama administration’s 2010 health-care law, as well as the the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul, rewriting the tax code and boosting military spending.
But Republicans will also be responsible for making potentially unpopular decisions over how to fund the government, or raise its borrowing limit sometimes after March 2017, the Journal noted.
"It’s going to be tough," Tennessee GOP Rep. Phil Roe told the Journal. "We will get it done, but how we get it done, I couldn’t tell you."
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