The Republicans' two most senior leaders pledged on Wednesday to repeal Obamacare.

House Speaker John Boehner and current Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed in a joint op-ed yesterday evening in the Wall Street Journal to 'honor the voters’ trust' by focusing, first, on jobs and the economy.

That 'also means renewing our commitment to repeal ObamaCare, which is hurting the job market along with Americans’ health care,' the duo wrote.

The assurance sets up a showdown with the lame duck president over his signature law, as well as Senate Democrats, a few of whom would need to break ranks and vote with the GOP in order to make repeal possible.

It also reduces the likelihood that conservatives who are unhappy with McConnell's leadership in the Senate will try to block him from ascending to majority leader.

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Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, the current minority leader in the Senate, is the presumed to be the next majority leader. But conservative Sen. Ted Cruz, who has a strong following in the Senate, is refusing to endorse him

In addition to their oath to keep up their efforts to repeal Obamacare, McConnell and Boehner said Wednesday the new Congress would authorize the Keystone pipeline and send a slew of House-passed jobs bills to the president next come January.

That's when Republicans will formally take control of the Senate, putting Republicans in charge of the entire legislative branch.

As part of their plans to roll back changes to the economy introduced by the president's signature law, Boehner and McConnell said they would reinstate the 40-hour work week, which was rolled back to 30 hours by health care reform.

The GOP leaders also said they would push through legislation incentivizing businesses to hire more veterans and education reform bills favorable to charter schools and would act to 'protect and expand America’s emerging energy boom.'

'Will these bills single-handedly turn around the economy? No. But taking up bipartisan bills aimed at helping the economy that have already passed the House is a sensible and obvious first step,' they said, careful not to over promise to voters.

Speaking more broadly about the good tidings their leadership would bring, the Ohio Rep. and Kentucky Senator said Congress would 'conduct meaningful oversight of federal agencies and make sure Democrats have the opportunity to have their legislation considered, as well.

In a laundry list of other promises tacked on at the end Boehner and McConnell noted that they would fight for legislation that reforms the 'insanely complex tax code,' stops the rise in health care costs caused by Obamacare, stops 'a savage global terrorist threat that seeks to wage war on every American,' promote school choice, reduce government regulations and tackle the national debt.

The promise to repeal Obamacare comes after Texas Sen. Ted Cruz refused to throw his support behind McConnell for majority leader. For Cruz and other senators of his ilk, the absolute top priority of the new Republican majority after jumpstarting the economy is getting rid of Obamacare. They are also hell bent on stopping President Barack Obama from implementing 'illegal amnesty.'

In an Oct. 19 op-ed for USA Today Cruz said his party should 'pursue all means possible to repeal Obamacare' if it obtained the Senate.

'We should pass repeal legislation (forcing an Obama veto), and then pass bill after bill to mitigate the harms of Obamacare,' he said, specifically citing a 'repeal the individual mandate' provision of the law that requires all Americans to buy health insurance.

'Perhaps, President Obama vetoes every one. But each has powerful appeal with the electorate who are hurting under this law, and Democratic senators may not be quite so eager to join their 2014 colleagues in losing their jobs over Obama's refusal to listen to the people,' Cruz expounded.

McConnell tried to strengthen his conservative credentials on Wednesday by joining Speaker of the House John Boehner, seen here speaking during a reelection event for a GOP congressman earlier this week, in writing an op-ed in which they promised they'd keep trying to repeal Obamacare

Furthermore Cruz, a presumed 2016 presidential candidate, has said several times on the campaign trail this fall that to him, the issue at the crux of the midterm elections was immigration reform and Obama's promise to save millions of illegal immigrants from deportation through an executive order.

In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Wednesday, Cruz and five of his cohorts in the Senate - Sens. Mike Crapo, Mike Lee, Pat Roberts, Jeff Sessions and David Vitter - said they would use 'all procedural means necessary' to stop Obama from keeping his word.

They did not explicitly state that they would rally their Republican colleagues to again shut down the government but the intent was implied. That puts them in direct confrontation with McConnell, who said this week that there will not be another government shut down.

McConnell didn't seem too worried today about being undercut as leader of the Senate at a press conference he held in his home state to announce the Republican agenda moving forward.

'Let me just make a prediction for you,' he told reporters. 'A week from tomorrow, I will be elected majority leader of the Senate.'

The newly reelected Kentucky Senator said at his presser that it would be a 'mistake' for President Obama to act on immigration alone, and in an interview with Time magazine he said the the GOP would 'push back on executive overreach' through the funding process.

'We’re going to pass a budget. We’re going to pass appropriations bills,' he told Time.

McConnell wouldn't commit to addressing issues favored by his caucus in any particular legislative order, telling the news publication that 'exactly which bill comes up first will be determined after discussing that with my colleagues and with the Speaker.'

Yet, he did list approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, rescinding the medical device tax introduced by health care reform and the abolition of the individual mandate as frontrunners.

'Also, we’re going to want to see what kind of things we might be able to agree on with the President. After all, he’s going to be there for two more years,' McConnell cautioned, suggesting that Republicans and the president may be able to find common ground on several issues like 'comprehensive tax reform and trade agreements.'

McConnell was clear about one thing, however: there will not be an all-out repeal of Obamacare, as conservatives such as Cruz campaigned on.

'It's no secret that every one of my members thinks Obamacare was a huge legislative mistake,' McConnell told reporters today.

'If I had the ability, obviously I'd get rid of it,' he said.

Don't mess with Texas: Sen. Ted Cruz, pictured hereat a Republican victory party, on Tuesday is holding McConnell's feet to the fire on Obamacare evisceration and legislation to stop Obama's 'executive amnesty'

But as Republican strategist Ron Bonjean explained to the Washington Post recently, such a move would likely be unsuccessful.

Speaking about Cruz's crusade against the health care law, Bonjean said he understood why the Texas Senator is 'eager' to get rid of it.

'But the reality is that it’ll take 60 votes to repeal it and Republicans will have nowhere near that amount. If Obamacare remains the focus, he will certainly get the base jazzed up about what he’s doing, but he won’t get rid of the law,' Bonjean said.

Even if Republicans pick up a still yet to be decided Senate seat in Louisiana, the party will still control just 54 seats in the upper chamber - a half-dozen short of what it would be need to bypass a veto from Obama and toss out the unpopular law.

McConnell's op-ed today seemed to ignore that political reality as he tried to calm down Cruz and other conservatives who might want to overthrow him as the GOP's top man in the Senate or take matters into their own hands.

In the past Cruz has tried to use a government shut down as a tactic to back Democrats into a corner over the law.

But McConnell said yesterday 'there is no possibility of a government shutdown' in the upcoming session.

Last time Republicans tried that their numbers tumbled, and it took several months of Obama administration scandals to bring them back up.

McConnell's mild-mannered approach to combating Democrats' favored legislation is the exact opposite of what Cruz has advocated for, however, and Kentucky Republican will have to get more teeth if he wants to keep some of the most influential and vocal members of his caucus content.

Cruz told the Post in a recent interview that it's important to go for the jugular, that way 'you have clear accountability. It becomes transparent to everyone that it is the Democrats blocking meaningful progress.'

'One of the reasons Republicans have lost elections recently is that we have failed to engage in a meaningful way on the great issues of the day,' Cruz said at another point in the interview. 'We’ve played a prevent defense. You don’t win elections that way.'

In the interview, released on Sunday before the GOP took control of the Senate, Cruz refused to put his support for fellow Republican McConnell on the record.

He again demurred when pressed on the issue on Tuesday evening by CNN host Wolf Blitzer.

'Well, that will be a decision for the Congress to make and that will be decided next week,' Cruz said.

In an interview with The Hill on Tuesday evening Cruz clarified that 'under no circumstances' would he personally challenge McConnell, but remained vague about where his personal loyalties lied.

'I don’t think anyone has declared their intention to run, and that will be a decision for the conference next week, and we’ll see,' he stated.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul sought to stick a pin in rumors that his colleague from the Bluegrass State was under any real threat of being dethroned on Wednesday.

'I’ll be for Senator McConnell,' Paul, a libertarian who lent his support to McConnell's Senate reelection campaign this fall, told The Washington Post. 'I also haven’t heard of anything being planned against him or the rest of the leadership team.

'I believe he will have an overwhelming win when the time comes,' Paul asserted.

Paul is expected to enter the bidding game for the White House early next year. He told the Post on Wednesday that he thinks the Senate should conquer corporate tax reform right off the bat next session in order attract more businesses to the U.S.

'I’m pushing it,' he said. 'I've discussed it with [McConnell] and we’d have a stimulus by bringing profits back here. I say, let’s get it done in January and not wait a year to do overall tax reform.'



