Republican governors on Monday blasted President Obama for resisting compromise with the GOP-controlled Congress.
During a news conference after meeting with Obama at the White House, Republican governors criticized the president for vowing to veto legislation authorizing the construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, and similarly threatening to reject a House-passed bill that would fund the Department of Homeland Security while reversing his executive immigration order.
The GOP tied language reversing “executive amnesty” to legislation funding the Department of Homeland Security, which runs out of money on Saturday.
Not all of the governors necessarily support the approach taken by Republicans in Congress to fight Obama’s unilateral move to legalize and offer work permits to 4.1 million illegal immigrants.
“I don’t think you should hijack homeland security funds to deal with that issue,” North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory said. (His colleague and neighbor, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, volunteered that she would like congressional Republicans to “stick to their guns” in their showdown with Obama on homeland security funding and immigration.)
But the disagreement ended there, with the governors rapping Obama for demanding action from Congress and then promising to veto some of the first major bills to see the light of day on Capitol Hill this year.
The governors also unloaded on the president for asking them to participate in improving the lives on everyday Americans but then rejecting most of the solutions they propose that require federal sign-off, such as overhauling state Medicaid programs.
“It’s not shocking news that things are not just bogged down but stuck in Washington,” said Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, chairman of the Republican Governors Association. “A lot of people have an interest in keeping things stirred up and stuck.
Governors from across the country were in Washington over the past few days for a series of meetings with each other and the administration.
