This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

For the last eight years, the primary motivating factor for congressional Republicans — the thing that got them out of bed in the morning — was the desire to be against everything President Obama was for and for everything he was against.

Come Friday morning, they will need a new reason to live. But, not to worry, there is lots to do.

The 22nd Amendment having accomplished what politics could not, Republicans in Congress, including the six members from Utah, will live in a world where a nominal member of their own party occupies the Oval Office.

While unpredictability is about the most predictable aspect of Donald Trump's public persona, the Republicans who control both houses of Congress may at least begin their task with some confidence that they will not automatically be at loggerheads with the White House and that bills they pass have a hope of actually becoming law.

Which, of course, greatly increases the necessity that those bills be reasonable, in the public interest and as bipartisan as possible. Answering back what they derided as, for example, the partisan railroading of the Affordable Care Act with more rounds of one-party domination is not what the country needs right now.

Even the long-held goal of repealing the ACA, aka Obamacare, may hit a few bumps as the Republicans who will now be held responsible for the outcome face the consequences. As they grasp that a repeal without a replace will take health insurance away from millions of Americans. As they see that if the taxes that help fund the system are cut, the benefits will flow mostly to the rich while the federal deficit balloons.

Budget issues, deficit reduction, tax reform and the future of health care are all inextricably intertwined. None can be solved unless all are addressed. None can be meaningfully faced without efforts to reach across the aisle and craft workable compromises.

Sens. Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee, Reps. Jason Chaffetz, Chris Stewart, Rob Bishop and Mia Love do not owe their positions to Trump. They were elected, comfortably, by the people of Utah.

As they will presumably not devote their lives to frustrating this president's every move, they must also be independent of him.

Specifically, the investigations committee Chaffetz heads must be self-directing enough to go where the facts lead, not turning a blind eye to the new administration's questionable dealings and not using its power to pre-empt or frighten off other watchdogs. On this score, Chaffetz has already put one foot wrong, calling out the head of the Office of Government Ethics for his efforts to guide Trump away from the massive conflicts of interest that exist because the new president will not divest his holdings or put them in a blind trust.

Utah's members of Congress can and should be about real legislating, real leadership, real statesmanship. After all, they don't have Barack Obama to kick around any more.