Thursday, 6 November 2014

WHAT LANDSLIDE? Obama threatens vetoes and executive orders – including immigration reform THIS YEAR – after Americans reject him by giving Republicans historic gains in Congress


  • 'Congress will pass some bills I cannot sign,' the president warned
  • He has only vetoed  two minor bills since his inauguration in 2009
  • And 'I'll take some actions that some in Congress will not like,' Obama added, referring to threatened executive orders
  • Those include a bold move on immigration 'before the end of the year'
  • President sounded more like a winner than a loser despite his policies being repudiated on a national scale
  • Never articulated a single policy where he would shift his position to align with GOP majorities in both houses of Congress 
President Barack Obama came out swinging on Wednesday just 14 hours after a Republican wave swept over the U.S. Congress in an election that largely repudiated his policies.
'Congress will pass some bills I cannot sign,' he said, threatening to dust off a veto pen that he has used only twice in nearly six years.
And he hinted at executive orders that will enrage conservatives. 
'I'm pretty sure I'll take some actions that some in Congress will not like,' he said. 'That's natural. That's how Democracy works.'
Much of reporters' tussling with the president focused on executive orders related to immigration reform – what some tea party Republicans call an 'amnesty' – which he plans to implement this year.
He acknowledged that the GOP won Tuesday's elections, but framed the results as a mandate for Republicans to work with him, instead of the other way around.
'Obviously the Republicans had a good night,' he said. 
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STUNG BUT SWINGING: Obama insisted that he won't budge on immigration and other key issues despite Republicans' 'wave' election on Tuesday
FULL HOUSE: Reporters crowded into the White House's East Room to hear President Barack Obama react to his party's Tuesday night electoral drubbing
NEW COLD WARRIOR? Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell (left) seized control of Democrats' previous congressional stronghold on Tuesday, but Obama behaved as though his party won 
But he said he would principally work with them 'if there are ideas that the Republicans have that I am confident will make things better for ordinary Americans.'
'I want to just see what works,' he said.
'The American people sent a message,' he claimed, 'one that they've sent for several elections now.' 
'They expect the people they elect to work as hard as they do. They expect us to focus on their ambitions, and not ours.'
He then rattled off a list of economic indicators that he said buttressed his case that Republicans should accept his point of view.
'More Americans are working. Unemployment has come down,' he claimed, glossing over the part-time employment shift that the Obamacare law's employer mandate has ushered in. 
Obama: The American people have sent us a message
 
Obama: I've got a lot of work left to do
 
'Our economy is outpacing most of the world. But we've just gotta keep at it. Much of that will take action from Congress. And I'm eager to work with the next Congress.'
He cited infrastructure building projects and international trade as areas where he thought his agenda overlaps with the GOP's. 
Responding to hot-button questions about the fate of Obamacare in the age of a Republican Congress, the president didn't budge.
He said he would only work with Republicans if they seek to 'make responsible changes' to the law. 'I'm going to be very receptive to hearing those ideas.'
'Despite all the contention,' Obama claimed, 'we now know that the law works.'
And he pledged to avoid last year's chronic website snafus the next time around. 
'We're really making sure the website works super well before the next open enrollment period,' he said. 'We're double- and triple'checking it.'
Addressing his relationship with the new Senate majority leader, Obama chuckled at a question about whether he might sit down with him for a drink.
'I would enjoy having some Kentucky bourbon with Mitch McConnell,' the president said. 
'He has always been very straightforward with me. To his credit, he has never made a promise that he couldn't deliver. And he knows the legislative process well. He obviously know his caucus well.'
Mitch McConnell vows return of functioning Senate
 
'What I'm not gonna do is just wait,' Obama said, pledging to take executive action on immigration by year's end
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'What I'm not gonna do is just wait,' Obama said, pledging to take executive action on immigration by year's end
McConnell, he told reporters, has 'always given me realistic assessments of what he can get through his caucus and what he can't, so I think we can have a productive relationship.' 
Obama also announced that he has sent Congress a funding request for $6.18 billion in new funds to fight the Ebola crisis at home and in Africa.
And he surprised many by saying he would ask Congress for a new Authorization for Use of Military Force to help him prosecute a flagging war against the self-described Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), the terror army that has slaughtered indiscriminately in its quest for a regional caliphate.
The move is a 180-degree turn from he administration's previous position that a George W. Bush-era congressional permission slip was more than adequate to deal with turmoil in Iraq and Syria. 
'We now have a different type of enemy,' Obama said Wednesday, echoing Republicans' objections months ago. 'The strategy is different.'
''It makes sense for us to make sure that the authorization from Congress reflects what we perceive to be not just out strategy over the next two to three months,' he said, but also our strategy moving forward.
The president also challenged the lame-duck Congress, with a Senate still run by the election-wounded Nevada Democrat Harry Reid, to 'pass a budget for the rest of the fiscal year' in just five weeks, and to do it in a 'bipartisan, drama-free way.'
And he didn't budge on immigration, despite the second midterm election shellacking of his presidency.
Republicans take Senate as Democrats suffer shellacking
 
What landslide? Obama didn't acknowledge a single policy where he would shift his point of view to align with the new Republican congressional majority
What landslide? Obama didn't acknowledge a single policy where he would shift his point of view to align with the new Republican congressional majority
'I have consistently said that it is my profound preference and interest to see Congress act on a comprehensive immigration reform bill,' Obama said.
That sort of bill passed the Senate in 2013 but was dead on arrival in the House.
With a larger Republican majority in the House and a newly minted Senate majority as well, that plan seems even less likely to succeed now.
Obama pledged to 'do everything I can in my executive authority' to take 'whatever lawful actions that I can take that I believe will improve our immigration system.'
And he dared the GOP to see things his way.
Executive orders, he said, 'will be replaced and supplanted by a bill from Congress.'
'You send me a bill that I can sign and those executive actions go away.
But he cautioned: 'What I'm not gonna do is just wait.'
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