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Obama, McConnell speak of cooperation, but clashes on issues appear imminent.
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Nov 6, 2014 13:53:59   #
KHH1
 
BY CHRISTI PARSONS AND DAVID LAUTER
WASHINGTON — President Obama and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell talked of cooperation Wednesday in the aftermath of the huge GOP election victory, but the two sides prepared for renewed conflict on issues that have dominated the campaign and national debate for the last two years.
On immigration, healthcare and global warming, the initial public statements from the two sides, while polite, indicated little flexibility and presaged intense new battles that could begin within weeks.
Obama reiterated his promise of executive action this year to protect potentially millions of unauthorized immigrants from deportation; McConnell likened the move, for Republicans, to “waving a red flag in front of a bull.”
McConnell pledged to undo major parts of Obama’s healthcare reform law; the president promised to veto those efforts.
And the two sides prepared for confrontation on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline from Canada. That could lead Obama to face an early decision on whether to use his veto or acquiesce and anger a major Democratic constituency — in this case, environmental activists.
Speaking to reporters in the East Room of the White House, Obama gave minimal concession to the widespread Republican gains in Tuesday’s election, which included winning majority control of the Senate for the first time since 2006.
“Obviously Republicans had a good night,” he said. Otherwise, he repeatedly deflected suggestions that he bore any personal responsibility for his party’s defeat, or that voters had passed a negative judgment on his policies.
Obama’s words contrasted with his response to the Democrats’ midterm defeat four years ago. At the time, he described that loss as a “shellacking.”
The 2010 losses led to a new White House emphasis on deficit reduction and a long, ultimately fruitless effort to reach a “grand bargain” with Republicans on taxes and spending.
This time, the president gave no sign that he planned any significant change in his priorities or approach during his final two years in office.
Both sides sought to convey an air of cordiality, playing down the partisan contentiousness that voters have repeatedly told pollsters they deplore.
McConnell, at his own news conference in Louisville, Ky., held shortly before Obama’s, repeatedly ruled out two tactics that have proved especially unpopular, saying that Republicans will not engage in brinkmanship over the federal debt ceiling, as they did in 2011, or force another government shutdown, as they did in 2013.
Both leaders said they thought they could agree on expanding global trade and cutting corporate taxes, two issues that have been priorities for business groups. Trade policy has pitted the White House against many Democratic members of Congress and interest groups, making it one of the rare areas where the switch to GOP control could help the Obama agenda.
But those are comparatively small-bore topics, a fact Obama tacitly conceded, describing them as areas where talks, if successful, might open the way to broader deals.
Meantime, the two sides quickly squared off over the same issues they have argued about for years, starting with immigration.
“It’s time for us to take care of business,” Obama said, referring to his vow to issue executive orders if Congress doesn’t act. “I can’t wait another two years.”
McConnell warned against unilateral action that “poisons the well” for cooperation with Republicans. “I hope he won’t do that,” he said.
Administration officials are preparing a broad package of changes to immigration policy aimed for late November or early December, according to two senior administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
They are likely to create a program that would allow people in the country illegally to come forward, pay a fee and submit to a background check to apply for a work permit and a temporary reprieve from deportation.
It would be similar to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program created in 2012.
As many as 5 million people could be eligible for the new program, although the scope of the new deferred action program is still being decided, the officials said. Some officials are pushing to include all parents of children who are U.S. citizens, as well as parents of DACA recipients who have been in the country for several years.
Obama’s order will also probably narrow the rules given to immigration officials about who should be held for immigration violations and expand the definition of who is eligible for employment visas, the officials said.
After initially saying he would act on immigration by the end of the summer, Obama announced in September that he would wait until after this week’s election.
At the time, White House officials said they were holding off in deference to Democratic Senate candidates who feared executive action on immigration could imperil their campaigns.
In the end, nearly all those embattled Democrats lost their seats anyway, and Obama absorbed the wrath of Latino activists who have denounced him for deporting too many people.
McConnell also said the Republican Senate would move to undo at least parts of the 2010 healthcare law, although he also sought to quiet expectations of conservatives that the GOP could achieve total repeal.
“The veto pen is a pretty big thing,” he said.
Republicans will, at minimum, try to repeal the law’s new tax on certain medical devices, he said, and will try to strike down the requirement that individuals buy health insurance or pay a fine, which “people hate.”
Obama said he would veto any effort to repeal the insurance requirement, calling it “a line I can’t cross” because it would “undermine the structure of the law.”
But he pointedly did not repeat that statement about the device tax, which several Democratic senators also want to eliminate.
As if those two fights aren’t enough, the two parties also seemed headed for a clash over global warming.
Several Republican officials said they would push shortly after the new Congress convenes in January for legislation to end the administration’s long-running deliberations over the Keystone pipeline, which is designed to carry oil from the tar sands under Canada’s prairies to refineries along the Gulf Coast.
Enough Democratic senators support the proposed pipeline that a bill to order it approved would stand a good chance of garnering the 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster.
Obama sidestepped a question on whether he would veto it.
But McConnell made it clear that Keystone was only part of a broader agenda.
During his campaign in Kentucky, a state that has a long tradition of coal mining, he repeatedly denounced the administration’s policies on global warming, which Republicans have labeled a “war on coal.”
In a not-very-veiled reference to the Environmental Protection Agency, he said Republicans would seek to use budget bills to cut back on “the bureaucratic strangulation of our economy” through regulation.
“Look for us to go after those kinds of things through the spending process,” he said. christi.parsons 
@latimes.com   david.lauter@latimes.com   Twitter: @cparsons
@DavidLauter
Times staff writer Brian
Bennett contributed to this report.

MARK WILSON Getty Images
PRESIDENT OBAMA leaves the stage after a news conference in the East Room of the White House. He deflected suggestions that he bore any personal responsibility for Democrats’ midterm election losses.
Back
Continue

Reply
Nov 6, 2014 14:18:38   #
Super Dave Loc: Realville, USA
 
"PRESIDENT OBAMA leaves the stage after a news conference in the East Room of the White House. He deflected suggestions that he bore any personal responsibility for Democrats’ midterm election losses. "

Obama is such a child...

Why can't he admit his errors and start taking responsibility for anything?

Reply
Nov 6, 2014 15:00:52   #
America Only Loc: From the right hand of God
 
Super Dave wrote:
"PRESIDENT OBAMA leaves the stage after a news conference in the East Room of the White House. He deflected suggestions that he bore any personal responsibility for Democrats’ midterm election losses. "

Obama is such a child...

Why can't he admit his errors and start taking responsibility for anything?


He is neither "man enough"...or "woman enough" to stand up and be held accountable. I think we all knew that...right? LOL!

Reply
 
 
Nov 6, 2014 15:02:14   #
America Only Loc: From the right hand of God
 
KHH1 wrote:
BY CHRISTI PARSONS AND DAVID LAUTER
WASHINGTON — President Obama and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell talked of cooperation Wednesday in the aftermath of the huge GOP election victory, but the two sides prepared for renewed conflict on issues that have dominated the campaign and national debate for the last two years.
On immigration, healthcare and global warming, the initial public statements from the two sides, while polite, indicated little flexibility and presaged intense new battles that could begin within weeks.
Obama reiterated his promise of executive action this year to protect potentially millions of unauthorized immigrants from deportation; McConnell likened the move, for Republicans, to “waving a red flag in front of a bull.”
McConnell pledged to undo major parts of Obama’s healthcare reform law; the president promised to veto those efforts.
And the two sides prepared for confrontation on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline from Canada. That could lead Obama to face an early decision on whether to use his veto or acquiesce and anger a major Democratic constituency — in this case, environmental activists.
Speaking to reporters in the East Room of the White House, Obama gave minimal concession to the widespread Republican gains in Tuesday’s election, which included winning majority control of the Senate for the first time since 2006.
“Obviously Republicans had a good night,” he said. Otherwise, he repeatedly deflected suggestions that he bore any personal responsibility for his party’s defeat, or that voters had passed a negative judgment on his policies.
Obama’s words contrasted with his response to the Democrats’ midterm defeat four years ago. At the time, he described that loss as a “shellacking.”
The 2010 losses led to a new White House emphasis on deficit reduction and a long, ultimately fruitless effort to reach a “grand bargain” with Republicans on taxes and spending.
This time, the president gave no sign that he planned any significant change in his priorities or approach during his final two years in office.
Both sides sought to convey an air of cordiality, playing down the partisan contentiousness that voters have repeatedly told pollsters they deplore.
McConnell, at his own news conference in Louisville, Ky., held shortly before Obama’s, repeatedly ruled out two tactics that have proved especially unpopular, saying that Republicans will not engage in brinkmanship over the federal debt ceiling, as they did in 2011, or force another government shutdown, as they did in 2013.
Both leaders said they thought they could agree on expanding global trade and cutting corporate taxes, two issues that have been priorities for business groups. Trade policy has pitted the White House against many Democratic members of Congress and interest groups, making it one of the rare areas where the switch to GOP control could help the Obama agenda.
But those are comparatively small-bore topics, a fact Obama tacitly conceded, describing them as areas where talks, if successful, might open the way to broader deals.
Meantime, the two sides quickly squared off over the same issues they have argued about for years, starting with immigration.
“It’s time for us to take care of business,” Obama said, referring to his vow to issue executive orders if Congress doesn’t act. “I can’t wait another two years.”
McConnell warned against unilateral action that “poisons the well” for cooperation with Republicans. “I hope he won’t do that,” he said.
Administration officials are preparing a broad package of changes to immigration policy aimed for late November or early December, according to two senior administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
They are likely to create a program that would allow people in the country illegally to come forward, pay a fee and submit to a background check to apply for a work permit and a temporary reprieve from deportation.
It would be similar to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program created in 2012.
As many as 5 million people could be eligible for the new program, although the scope of the new deferred action program is still being decided, the officials said. Some officials are pushing to include all parents of children who are U.S. citizens, as well as parents of DACA recipients who have been in the country for several years.
Obama’s order will also probably narrow the rules given to immigration officials about who should be held for immigration violations and expand the definition of who is eligible for employment visas, the officials said.
After initially saying he would act on immigration by the end of the summer, Obama announced in September that he would wait until after this week’s election.
At the time, White House officials said they were holding off in deference to Democratic Senate candidates who feared executive action on immigration could imperil their campaigns.
In the end, nearly all those embattled Democrats lost their seats anyway, and Obama absorbed the wrath of Latino activists who have denounced him for deporting too many people.
McConnell also said the Republican Senate would move to undo at least parts of the 2010 healthcare law, although he also sought to quiet expectations of conservatives that the GOP could achieve total repeal.
“The veto pen is a pretty big thing,” he said.
Republicans will, at minimum, try to repeal the law’s new tax on certain medical devices, he said, and will try to strike down the requirement that individuals buy health insurance or pay a fine, which “people hate.”
Obama said he would veto any effort to repeal the insurance requirement, calling it “a line I can’t cross” because it would “undermine the structure of the law.”
But he pointedly did not repeat that statement about the device tax, which several Democratic senators also want to eliminate.
As if those two fights aren’t enough, the two parties also seemed headed for a clash over global warming.
Several Republican officials said they would push shortly after the new Congress convenes in January for legislation to end the administration’s long-running deliberations over the Keystone pipeline, which is designed to carry oil from the tar sands under Canada’s prairies to refineries along the Gulf Coast.
Enough Democratic senators support the proposed pipeline that a bill to order it approved would stand a good chance of garnering the 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster.
Obama sidestepped a question on whether he would veto it.
But McConnell made it clear that Keystone was only part of a broader agenda.
During his campaign in Kentucky, a state that has a long tradition of coal mining, he repeatedly denounced the administration’s policies on global warming, which Republicans have labeled a “war on coal.”
In a not-very-veiled reference to the Environmental Protection Agency, he said Republicans would seek to use budget bills to cut back on “the bureaucratic strangulation of our economy” through regulation.
“Look for us to go after those kinds of things through the spending process,” he said. christi.parsons 
@latimes.com   david.lauter@latimes.com   Twitter: @cparsons
@DavidLauter
Times staff writer Brian
Bennett contributed to this report.

MARK WILSON Getty Images
PRESIDENT OBAMA leaves the stage after a news conference in the East Room of the White House. He deflected suggestions that he bore any personal responsibility for Democrats’ midterm election losses.
Back
Continue
BY CHRISTI PARSONS AND DAVID LAUTER br WASHI... (show quote)



The days of "queers" united are coming to an end. BYE BYE Obama and Democraps...and HELLO AMERICANS!

Reply
Nov 6, 2014 15:02:30   #
nwtk2007 Loc: Texas
 
Super Dave wrote:
"PRESIDENT OBAMA leaves the stage after a news conference in the East Room of the White House. He deflected suggestions that he bore any personal responsibility for Democrats’ midterm election losses. "

Obama is such a child...

Why can't he admit his errors and start taking responsibility for anything?


I found it interesting that the one democrat whom he actually went and stood by won.

Reply
Nov 6, 2014 15:03:54   #
nwtk2007 Loc: Texas
 
KHH1 wrote:
BY CHRISTI PARSONS AND DAVID LAUTER
WASHINGTON — President Obama and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell talked of cooperation Wednesday in the aftermath of the huge GOP election victory, but the two sides prepared for renewed conflict on issues that have dominated the campaign and national debate for the last two years.
On immigration, healthcare and global warming, the initial public statements from the two sides, while polite, indicated little flexibility and presaged intense new battles that could begin within weeks.
Obama reiterated his promise of executive action this year to protect potentially millions of unauthorized immigrants from deportation; McConnell likened the move, for Republicans, to “waving a red flag in front of a bull.”
McConnell pledged to undo major parts of Obama’s healthcare reform law; the president promised to veto those efforts.
And the two sides prepared for confrontation on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline from Canada. That could lead Obama to face an early decision on whether to use his veto or acquiesce and anger a major Democratic constituency — in this case, environmental activists.
Speaking to reporters in the East Room of the White House, Obama gave minimal concession to the widespread Republican gains in Tuesday’s election, which included winning majority control of the Senate for the first time since 2006.
“Obviously Republicans had a good night,” he said. Otherwise, he repeatedly deflected suggestions that he bore any personal responsibility for his party’s defeat, or that voters had passed a negative judgment on his policies.
Obama’s words contrasted with his response to the Democrats’ midterm defeat four years ago. At the time, he described that loss as a “shellacking.”
The 2010 losses led to a new White House emphasis on deficit reduction and a long, ultimately fruitless effort to reach a “grand bargain” with Republicans on taxes and spending.
This time, the president gave no sign that he planned any significant change in his priorities or approach during his final two years in office.
Both sides sought to convey an air of cordiality, playing down the partisan contentiousness that voters have repeatedly told pollsters they deplore.
McConnell, at his own news conference in Louisville, Ky., held shortly before Obama’s, repeatedly ruled out two tactics that have proved especially unpopular, saying that Republicans will not engage in brinkmanship over the federal debt ceiling, as they did in 2011, or force another government shutdown, as they did in 2013.
Both leaders said they thought they could agree on expanding global trade and cutting corporate taxes, two issues that have been priorities for business groups. Trade policy has pitted the White House against many Democratic members of Congress and interest groups, making it one of the rare areas where the switch to GOP control could help the Obama agenda.
But those are comparatively small-bore topics, a fact Obama tacitly conceded, describing them as areas where talks, if successful, might open the way to broader deals.
Meantime, the two sides quickly squared off over the same issues they have argued about for years, starting with immigration.
“It’s time for us to take care of business,” Obama said, referring to his vow to issue executive orders if Congress doesn’t act. “I can’t wait another two years.”
McConnell warned against unilateral action that “poisons the well” for cooperation with Republicans. “I hope he won’t do that,” he said.
Administration officials are preparing a broad package of changes to immigration policy aimed for late November or early December, according to two senior administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
They are likely to create a program that would allow people in the country illegally to come forward, pay a fee and submit to a background check to apply for a work permit and a temporary reprieve from deportation.
It would be similar to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program created in 2012.
As many as 5 million people could be eligible for the new program, although the scope of the new deferred action program is still being decided, the officials said. Some officials are pushing to include all parents of children who are U.S. citizens, as well as parents of DACA recipients who have been in the country for several years.
Obama’s order will also probably narrow the rules given to immigration officials about who should be held for immigration violations and expand the definition of who is eligible for employment visas, the officials said.
After initially saying he would act on immigration by the end of the summer, Obama announced in September that he would wait until after this week’s election.
At the time, White House officials said they were holding off in deference to Democratic Senate candidates who feared executive action on immigration could imperil their campaigns.
In the end, nearly all those embattled Democrats lost their seats anyway, and Obama absorbed the wrath of Latino activists who have denounced him for deporting too many people.
McConnell also said the Republican Senate would move to undo at least parts of the 2010 healthcare law, although he also sought to quiet expectations of conservatives that the GOP could achieve total repeal.
“The veto pen is a pretty big thing,” he said.
Republicans will, at minimum, try to repeal the law’s new tax on certain medical devices, he said, and will try to strike down the requirement that individuals buy health insurance or pay a fine, which “people hate.”
Obama said he would veto any effort to repeal the insurance requirement, calling it “a line I can’t cross” because it would “undermine the structure of the law.”
But he pointedly did not repeat that statement about the device tax, which several Democratic senators also want to eliminate.
As if those two fights aren’t enough, the two parties also seemed headed for a clash over global warming.
Several Republican officials said they would push shortly after the new Congress convenes in January for legislation to end the administration’s long-running deliberations over the Keystone pipeline, which is designed to carry oil from the tar sands under Canada’s prairies to refineries along the Gulf Coast.
Enough Democratic senators support the proposed pipeline that a bill to order it approved would stand a good chance of garnering the 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster.
Obama sidestepped a question on whether he would veto it.
But McConnell made it clear that Keystone was only part of a broader agenda.
During his campaign in Kentucky, a state that has a long tradition of coal mining, he repeatedly denounced the administration’s policies on global warming, which Republicans have labeled a “war on coal.”
In a not-very-veiled reference to the Environmental Protection Agency, he said Republicans would seek to use budget bills to cut back on “the bureaucratic strangulation of our economy” through regulation.
“Look for us to go after those kinds of things through the spending process,” he said. christi.parsons 
@latimes.com   david.lauter@latimes.com   Twitter: @cparsons
@DavidLauter
Times staff writer Brian
Bennett contributed to this report.

MARK WILSON Getty Images
PRESIDENT OBAMA leaves the stage after a news conference in the East Room of the White House. He deflected suggestions that he bore any personal responsibility for Democrats’ midterm election losses.
Back
Continue
BY CHRISTI PARSONS AND DAVID LAUTER br WASHI... (show quote)


I see no compromise in the next two years. It'll be a pitch battle btwn Obama and McConnell and Jon Stewart is getting his rocks on in anticipation.

Reply
Nov 6, 2014 15:30:56   #
Super Dave Loc: Realville, USA
 
nwtk2007 wrote:
I see no compromise in the next two years. It'll be a pitch battle btwn Obama and McConnell and Jon Stewart is getting his rocks on in anticipation.
Obama won't compromise. I think he's incapable.

This is a guy so arrogant that he has yet to admit a single mistake as POTUS.

Even with a historic ass-kicking where he said his agenda was on the ballot, he takes absolutely no responsibility for the failure of that agenda to inspire the American people.

Reply
 
 
Nov 6, 2014 15:44:46   #
nwtk2007 Loc: Texas
 
Super Dave wrote:
Obama won't compromise. I think he's incapable.

This is a guy so arrogant that he has yet to admit a single mistake as POTUS.

Even with a historic ass-kicking where he said his agenda was on the ballot, he takes absolutely no responsibility for the failure of that agenda to inspire the American people.


That's true, and people want inspiration much more than they want real solutions.

Reply
Nov 6, 2014 15:48:15   #
Super Dave Loc: Realville, USA
 
nwtk2007 wrote:
That's true, and people want inspiration much more than they want real solutions.
Hope-n-Change was a great sales pitch. Wasn't it?

Reply
Nov 6, 2014 17:16:17   #
JMHO Loc: Utah
 
nwtk2007 wrote:
I see no compromise in the next two years. It'll be a pitch battle btwn Obama and McConnell and Jon Stewart is getting his rocks on in anticipation.


The Republicans were not elected to compromise. If the voters wanted compromise, or wanted the House and Senate to work with Obama, they would have elected Democrats! Still don't get it do you?

Reply
Nov 6, 2014 17:37:11   #
nwtk2007 Loc: Texas
 
JMHO wrote:
The Republicans were not elected to compromise. If the voters wanted compromise, or wanted the House and Senate to work with Obama, they would have elected Democrats! Still don't get it do you?


Its so simple. You heard those very words from Rush Limbaugh today. Ha Ha!!!!

Anything from your own little mind?

Reply
 
 
Nov 6, 2014 17:47:05   #
JMHO Loc: Utah
 
nwtk2007 wrote:
Its so simple. You heard those very words from Rush Limbaugh today. Ha Ha!!!!

Anything from your own little mind?


So? Rush is exactly right. So, I am not allowed to repeat something some one else has said? I have had a similar analysis and opinion of the election results, maybe in not the same exact words, but the main point is the same. Ha Ha yourself!!! Anything original from your pea sized mind?

Reply
Nov 6, 2014 17:52:59   #
Mr Shako Loc: Colo Spgs
 
nwtk2007 wrote:
I found it interesting that the one democrat whom he actually went and stood by won.


I heavily democratic Pa.

Reply
Nov 6, 2014 17:55:06   #
nwtk2007 Loc: Texas
 
JMHO wrote:
So? Rush is exactly right. So, I am not allowed to repeat something some one else has said? I have had a similar analysis and opinion of the election results, maybe in not the same exact words, but the main point is the same. Ha Ha yourself!!! Anything original from your pea sized mind?


Go eat your cracker Mr Parrot.

Reply
Nov 6, 2014 17:59:47   #
Workinman Loc: Bayou Pigeon
 
America Only wrote:
The days of "queers" united are coming to an end. BYE BYE Obama and Democraps...and HELLO AMERICANS!


Let's just get one thing straight, you lib/ dems can just sit the f down could care less what you have to say...compromise my ass, get to the back of the bus. Repubs should pass as many bills as they can muster to your kings desk, just so the American people can see who the true obstructionist is.

I hope the repubs grow some balls and start doing the will of the sane non lib people!!

Reply
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