President Obama and a newly empowered Republican leadership team will meet face-to-face Friday for the first time since Democrats took an electoral drubbing, offering the first real clues as to whether the next two years will bring gridlock and partisan warfare -- or some breakthroughs.
Both Obama and Sen. Mitch McConnell, the presumptive Senate majority leader next year, signaled Wednesday afternoon that voters upended the balance of power in Washington in part because they're tired of Washington's 'dysfunction.' McConnell and fellow Republicans claimed the vote also was a major rejection of Obama's policies -- but both sides claimed they want to try and work together in the remaining years of Obama's term.
Voters have heard this pledge before, only to see the conciliatory spirit doused by the political pressure of the next elections.
Obama, testing the new political waters, has called a major summit for Friday at the White House with top congressional leaders from both parties.
This will include McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner, as well as Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and his deputies -- and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, and hers.
On Wednesday, Obama made clear he does plan to pursue a highly controversial policy during the lame-duck session -- and take executive action on immigration in the absence of any comprehensive bill.
'Before the end of the year, we're going to take whatever lawful actions that I can take' to improve the system, Obama said. He said he still wants Congress to pass legislation, but wants to figure out 'what we can do lawfully through executive actions' in the meantime. He promised that if Congress passes a bill, it would make any executive actions 'go away.'
Republicans have urged Obama to hold off on this step, and the move could get Obama and the new GOP-control Congress off on the wrong foot.
Comments from GOP leaders and Obama on Wednesday suggested the next two years could bring a mix of bipartisan efforts and political confrontation. McConnell, for instance, talked about chipping away at unpopular provisions of the Affordable Care Act, including a medical device tax which the industry has blasted as crippling. Obama vowed to defend his signature health care law.
A Republican-controlled Senate also would be in a position to hold up key judicial and political appointments.
But there may be areas of agreement, and Obama said he wants to find the 'overlap' between his administration's priorities and those of the incoming Republican-controlled Congress.
The president outlined a few agenda points to start with, including a $6 billion request for emergency funds to battle Ebola in West Africa and in the U.S., and a congressional authorization to use military force against the Islamic State.
McConnell, dusting off an old project, said all sides could try, again, to work together on tax reform.
'The American people have spoken. They've given us divided government. The question for both the president and for both the speaker and myself and our members is, what are you going to do with it?' McConnell said. 'And I've already said I want to first look for areas that we can agree on and their probably are some. And that's what we're going to be talking about in the next few weeks.'
Obama suggested there is no personal animus between him and McConnell, calling him a 'straightforward' negotiator who never made a promise he couldn't deliver.
'Actually I would enjoy having some Kentucky bourbon with Mitch McConnell,' Obama said.
Posted by Unknown on Thursday, November 6, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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