Consumer Confidential: Healthcare reform targeted, car sales surge, clothing prices to rise

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Here’s your wishing-on-a-star Wednesday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

--Republicans won big in Congress, but don’t expect them to come through on pledges to repeal the sweeping healthcare reforms championed by President Obama. Oh, they’ll make a lot of noise about ‘the will of the people’ and such, but experts say there’s not much the GOP can do except some minor tweaks here and there. The bottom line is that the reform law is a done deal and that anything the Republicans try to pull off to change that will face Obama’s veto pen. Maybe they can focus instead on transforming from the ‘party of no’ to the ‘party of compromise.’

--Baby, you can drive my car: U.S. and foreign automakers have reported strong sales for October, with analysts saying the month could be one of the best for the industry since the summer of 2009, when the ‘cash for clunkers’ program spurred buyers back into showrooms. GM says its sales were up 3.5% last month, while Chrysler posted a 37% jump in sales. Similar gains were reported by Honda and Hyundai.

--It’ll get pricier to show little pizzazz. Soaring cotton costs are prompting many clothing makers to raise prices for 2011 -- in some cases, by as much as 10%. Cotton is now about 80% more expensive than at the start of the year because demand from China and India has pushed prices higher. This bodes ill for smaller clothing companies and retailers that will have no choice but to jack up prices. As for the rest of us, maybe those Old Navy khakis aren’t so dweeby after all.

-- David Lazarus