I think that if Republicans are given the reins of leadership in the House or Senate or both we will have to govern in a way - at least put forward solutions whether or not the president goes along with them or not that deal with these long-term challenges.

The fact is when it comes to economic leadership the Republicans have nothing to brag about. This isn't what the American people want. They want to see progress that works for them.

We're going to need to absorb some pain. The Republicans want to pile all the pain on people who can least afford it and the middle class and Democrats under his leadership want to make sure that we can address deficit reduction and continue to make investments and shared sacrifice is going to be imperative in order to be able to do that.

But the fact is that the vast majority of Republicans support the Sinn Fein leadership.

We have a tremendous lack of knowledge of how far we have gotten away from the Constitution of the United States. Democrats and Republicans alike have taken us away from the original intent. You see I believe in this document as our founding fathers intended it.

House and Senate Republicans are now united in adopting earmark bans. We hope President Obama will follow through on his support for an earmark ban by pressing Democratic leaders to join House and Senate Republicans in taking this critical step to restore public trust.

Of course the Republicans have long wanted to privatize Social Security and destroy it. But Social Security has been the most important and valuable social program in the history of the United States.

The Democrats co-opted the credit for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But if you go back and look at the history a larger percentage of Republicans voted for that than did Democrats. But a Democrat president signed it so they co-opted credit for having passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

There is nothing new about these Republican attacks on our family planning decisions. In fact from the moment they came into power Republicans in the House of Representatives have been waging a war on women's health.

Seven presidents before him - Democrats and Republicans - tried to expand health care to all Americans. President Obama got it done.

It is important for women to have a choice to have an opportunity to plan their families because if they don't the Republicans have said this is an ownership society. You are on your own and they're going to begrudge that child everything from WIC to a Pell Grant to health insurance.

The reason Gov. Romney passed Romneycare as governor of Massachusetts in 2006 was because many Republicans viewed health care reform mandates and all as a way to inoculate against Democratic charges that Republicans didn't care about people who lacked health insurance.

President Obama stands ready to work with everyone because that's what the American people expect and deserve - not for the short term political advantages but the long term health of our country. We don't spend time trying to figure out what's in the minds of Republicans we try to keep our focus on the American people.

It is hard to miss the irony in the fact that the very same week that Republicans were publicly heralding Congressman Paul Ryan's plan to inject market forces into the American health care system they were crafting a budget deal to strip them from the health reform law.

Mr. Obama still has time to reverse course. A great deal depends on it. To fail on health care yet again might well be the 'Waterloo' Republicans dream of.

Republicans would have preferred the court overturn the health care bill an act that would have underscored Obama's biggest liability - the perception among voters including those who like and trust him that he has been ineffective.

If you want to know why Republicans and conservatives are in a political crisis you need only consider the fact that the Right's deeply held view now boils down to this: Taxes should not go up on the wealthy and your health benefits should be cut.