WASHINGTON — Emboldened by a commanding House majority and Senate gains, Republican leaders vowed Wednesday to roll back the size of government and, in time, the nation's sweeping health care law. President Barack Obama, reflective after his party's drubbing, accepted blame for failing to deliver the economic security Americans demand while saying of his health overhaul: "This was the right thing to do."
He called the election a Democratic "shellacking" and lamented that "we lost track of the ways we connected with the folks who got us here in the first place."
"Some election nights are more fun than others," he said.
Obama said Tuesday's results confirmed what he's heard from voters across the country: People are frustrated. He said the lesson of election was that he hasn't made enough progress in creating jobs.
After two years with fellow Democrats leading Congress, Obama now must deal for the rest of his term with the jarring reality of Republican control of the House, a diminished Democratic majority in the Senate and a new flock of lawmakers sworn to downsize government at every chance.
"I've got to do a better job," he said, "like everybody else in Washington." And he took responsibility for not doing enough to alter the ways of the capital, whether its hyper-partisanship or back-room dealing. "We were in such a hurry to get things done that we didn't change how things were done."
Republicans sounded less conciliatory in the first blush of their victories from the midterm elections Tuesday.
