Future House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio., met with with more than half a dozen newly elected Republican governors on Wednesday to discuss ways to cut spending, create jobs, and repeal the new health care law.

"We are now going to start conversations of why we don't need mandated health care and what we as states can do as solutions instead," Gov-elect Nikki Haley, R-S.C., said.
 
"We are not just going to say no," Haley vowed. "But we are actually going to tell our federal leaders what we can do instead so that they can go back and fight for why states should have more rights than what they have right now."

Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the governors could share ideas with lawmakers on how to govern better and less expensively.

"We want to establish a relationship with the governors where we can work together and provide the kind of flexibility governors are looking for in order to meet the challenges that they face in their states," said Boehner, who will take the speaker's gavel in January.

Meanwhile, the White House has pledged to work more closely with the nation's Democratic governors - a gesture they welcomed.

"We're always looking for more and better coordination and collaboration," Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, the new Democratic Governors Association chairman, said.

Still, he added: "Were it not for the actions of the president and the Democratic-controlled Congress on the economy, statehouses would be in shambles right now."

President Obama is scheduled to meet with the newly elected governors of both parties on Thursday.