By Haley Morrison | Contributor
Tuesday Nov. 8’s, results brought a presidential win for Donald Trump as well as a Republican victory for the Senate and the House of Representatives.
This is the first time in eight years that the same party has controlled both the Executive and Legislative branches. The Republican party hasn’t held the majority in both the House, Senate and presidency since 2005.
David Schleicher, Waco lawyer and former Democratic party chair of McLennan County, said he is interested in seeing what Donald Trump does to protect the working class, as he promised in the first presidential debate on Sept. 26 in New York.
Schleicher is particularly interested in what Trump plans on doing about an increase in minimum wage and overtime laws.
“If he repeals those, he will do what the Chamber of Commerce wants rather than support the working class,” Schleicher said. “Obama changed overtime rules to make a lot more people eligible for overtime – will he leave those in place, in support of blue collar workers?”
While Schleicher hopes that the Democrats will work with Trump on his policies helping the working class, he is primarily concerned about having the executive and legislative branches controlled by the same party.
“My biggest concern is that he would violate some Constitutional principle and no one would stand up to him because they are a part of the same party. People generally hesitate to stand up to someone when they are of the same party,” Schleicher said.
El Paso senior Stephen Rahimian hopes that with a Republican majority, there will be reform, particularly for immigration and healthcare.
“If they repeal Obamacare and replace it with something that would be feasible and work better, that will be great,” Rahimian said. “The problem is if they repeal it and don’t replace it.”
While Rahimian hopes that a Republican majority will bring changes, he worries about Trump and Congress disagreeing on important issues – primarily term limits.
“There cannot be that in-fighting again,” Rhimian said. One of the things that Trump has proposed is term limits, and Republicans don’t like that. That right there is a priority for Trump but not for the Senate.”
While the Republicans control the executive and the legislative branches, for Rahimian it is imperative that Democrats and Republicans work together for the next four years.
“It’s going to be very important for Republicans and Democrats to work together in the next four years. The bickering has to stop.”
