Obama ready to deploy executive powers against GOP Hill

President Obama challenged congressional Republicans to embrace the "shared responsibility" of governance even as the White House appears ready to use unilateral executive powers to battle Capitol Hill. With Republicans taking over the House and increasing their number in the Senate, Obama faces the possibility of having his agenda stalled with limited room to maneuver -- making for tough sledding in the two years leading up to his 2012 re-election bid.

In response, Obama is expected to make more frequent use of executive orders, vetoes, signing statements and policy initiatives that originate within the federal agencies to maneuver around congressional Republicans who are threatening to derail initiatives he has already put in place, including health care reforms, and to launch serial investigations into his administration's spending.

"There is going to be an effort on the president's part to use [executive powers] to satisfy his base and institutionalize what he can," said John Kenneth White, professor of politics at the Catholic University of America.

This week, the Environmental Protection Agency begins regulating greenhouse gas emissions at some energy plants and factories -- a move Obama pushed for after his cap-and-trade environmental legislation stalled in Congress