How the new Republican Congress can work with President Obama

Wednesday morning, we will wake up to a House of Representatives and potentially a Senate taken over by Republicans.  Republicans have opposed all of the unpopular programs that President Obama has promoted and will be rewarded by the American people.  Democrats and the liberal talking point repeaters have reminded everyone that will listen over and over that opposition to unpopular programs is not governing, and a Republican-majority Congress will have to govern.  They're right.  But it should be noted that the American people are not sending this new Congress to add Federal programs and laws and regulations, they're sending them to cut the Federal government and repeal laws and regulations.  This election is a mandate to increase freedom.  But with divided government, to make those cuts and repeal those laws and regulations, it will take bipartisanship.  Speaker Boehner (or whoever) will have to work with President Obama, Democrats in the Senate (even if Republicans do take back the Senate, it will be narrow), and probably some House Democrats.  To get this started on the right foot, I have a simple proposal:  Make the cuts that the Democrats ask for first.  Go to the President, and Democrats in Congress, and ask for a list of government programs and bureaucracies to cut (whole or partial), and laws and regulations to repeal.  Everything should be on the table.  Make those cuts first.  This won't be enough, but it will be a start, and a start on the right foot.  If Republicans let Democrats take some credit for the low-hanging fruit cuts, they should be more willing to work with Republicans when the cuts get harder.  The current fiscal and economic mess is a hole that was dug in a bipartisan fashion.  We'll need bipartisanship to get out of it.