The White House is continuing to try to smooth over cracks in the Democratic Party that have surfaced since last week’s passage of the $1 trillion spending bill.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said President Obama, like many Democrats, opposed a provision to ease regulations on Wall Street, but said that the overall legislation was a better deal than his side could get next year when Republicans control both houses of Congress.
Earnest described Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who has argued for greater oversight of the financial sector and led the Democratic revolt on the spending bill, as someone Obama “can work with” and noted that Warren and Obama were on the same side of a recent tax-extender deal.
The Democratic divisions that were on display over the final days of the Congress are “tactical” and not based on “principle,” and therefore less significant than Republican fissures, Earnest argued.
Conservative Republicans, such as Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, and like-minded GOP lawmakers in the House wanted to keep spending levels at their current rates to try to defund a number of Democratic priorities in the new year, such as Obamacare, several environmental regulations and the president’s executive action on immigration.
Instead, Republican leaders funded most of the government, except the Department of Homeland Security, until Sept. 30, 2015, setting up an immediate clash with Democrats and Obama only on the president’s unilateral action on immigration.
