McConnell has also spent recent weeks studying Republicans’ 1994 midterm election victory, in which the party won back Congress, and urged his colleagues not to forget one of its lessons: the power of the veto. With every flourish of President Bill Clinton’s pen, Republicans “ended up being viewed as failures, sellouts or both.”

McConnell warned: “We have to be realistic about what we can and cannot achieve, while at the same time recognizing that realism should never be confused with capitulation.”…

Even though Republicans will command a significant majority in the House, many of the GOP initiatives rolled out in recent days represent incremental steps, rather than bold reforms.

House GOP aides said the first major bill to be considered when the new Congress convenes in January will be one that would cut federal agency spending by $100 billion, reducing the overall cost of running the government to 2008 levels.