In a move certain to earn bipartisan praise, President Barack Obama asked Republicans on Tuesday to work out their differences with him by just admitting that he’s right.
The new outreach strategy comes on the heels of the White House’s failure to win over the GOP by essentially telling its members to get bent, and blasting Republicans a few paragraphs before soliciting their help.
“I’m waiting for Congress to act, but in the meantime I’ve got to go ahead and do what I can do,” the president said about wage and infrastructure issues during a speech in McLean, Va. “And in response, their plan so far has not been to join me and say, ‘All right, Mr. President, you’re right, we do need to rebuild our roads, we do need to spruce up our airports.’ Instead, their big idea has been to sue me.”
The focal point of the lawsuit to which Obama referred, initiated by the U.S. House, is the president’s unilateral actions in the implementation of Obamacare. The administration’s own ideological allies have questioned its use of executive authority.
Obama’s focus on infrastructure comes as federal transportation funding is on track to evaporate by August. The White House wants to enact a long-term fix with a four-year, $302 billion proposal partially financed with new tax revenue, while both the House and the Senate have come forward with more modest, short-term plans. The administration indicated its support Monday for the House-backed stopgap, a $10 billion measure that would extend funding into next May.
