Do you think the Republican controlled congress will be able to balance the budget in the next 2 years?

The "Republican" Congress will NOT be able to balance the budget since they are the very people who CAUSED THE PROBLEMS and they are pushing the SAME FAILED AGENDAS. But President Obama and the Democrats have set up a bipartisan COMMISSION whose purpose is to REDUCE DEFICIT and also LOWER NATIONAL DEBT. Republicans are not going to have that much power really, because the Senate stayed in the hands of Democratic leadership. So the Republicans in the House can try to BLOCK or they can agree finally to WORK WITH President Obama and their Democratic colleagues for the good of the nation on budgetary matters. President Obama is not going to allow these right-wing zealots to be Draconian, but he is going to steer them in positive directions that benefit ALL of us and not just the wealthiest 2% or the greedy-gut fatcat corporate CEOs.

Please bear in mind that the Democrats and President Obama succeeded in lowering the GOP-caused deficit by 8% in the first part of this year---and that was done without ANY cooperation from the Republicans in either the House or the Senate (Reuters and Washington Post, MSNBC, CNN reports). Working alone, the Republicans will accomplish very little that is good for this country, but if they finally join us, the Democrats, in our ongoing efforts to cut spending ($62 BILLION cut when President Obama canceled the Bush-ordered new presidential helicopter fleet and another $62 BILLION or more returned to Treasury when the F-22 planes Cheney ordered were canceled, for example---all dollars from the Bush/Cheney fiscal year budget in effect through Sept. 30, 2009 that were RETURNED to Treasury to pay down our debt). President Obama has been pushing his Green Energy technologies, too, which means EXPANDED MANUFACTURING JOBS and increased revenue in at least 40 states (see recovery.gov for more details). And there is an ongoing effort to OPEN FOREIGN MARKETS for American-made products that has had some success, again a jobs-creating effort on the part of the Obama administration. Republicans alone? No. Republicans joining their deficit-cutting Democratic colleagues after two long years of stubborn blockages? Maybe.

Republicans will control only the House, not the Senate nor the White House. And a Republican controlled anything has not balanced any budget in a 100 years so why would you think they'd start now?

The Republicans do not control Congress. Republicans have a majority in the House, but not in the Senate. Obama still has veto power. Reps in the House can draw up spending bills with deep cuts, but the bills will never get passed.

No, they cut the revenue stream and added to the deficit both. They would literally have to shut down the entire country, including the military and all services to do that.

We will only know what the News Media tells us.

I believe that republicans will try and find that the democrats will be unwilling to work with them.

Congress and the White House will not be Republican controlled until January 2013, but thanks for playing.

republicans only have the house.democrats have the senate

Yes they will balance the budget......its all smoke and mirrors, don't ya know

I don't think so. They might cut it in half, but that's about it.