LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The day after President Obama and his party lost the Senate and suffered staggering losses in midterm elections, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell challenged the White House to work with Republicans to alleviate the dysfunction gripping Washington.
McConnell, fresh off his own landslide re-election Tuesday and preparing to replace Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., as majority leader, discussed a governing agenda that includes repealing at least portions of Obamacare, such as the medical device tax, using Congress’ power of the purse to restrain an “overactive bureaucracy” and investigating Internal Revenue Service targeting of conservative groups.
But McConnell also emphasized that the Senate Republicans and the eight or more new members who would be joining his caucus in January did not run for office just to come to Capitol Hill and pick partisan fights.
The Kentuckian said flatly that on his watch there would be no government shutdowns or debt ceiling fights that result in a default on the federal debt, and expressed hope that a united Republican Congress and Obama might strike deals on tax reform, free trade agreements and other items. However, he said it was ultimately the president who would determine whether divided government worked for the American people or not.
“The president’s really got a choice,” McConnell said Wednesday afternoon during a news conference on the campus of the University of Louisville. “Because of the strength of the veto pen, he could probably stay on the current course he’s on — you know, just vetoing any effort we made to push back against what he’s doing and having the people that work for him do his bidding. Or, he could say: ‘Let’s see if there’s some areas of agreement.’”
Obama, somewhat defiant during a Wednesday afternoon news conference at the White House, said he still planned to pursue executive action where he felt it was appropriate, including on immigration policy, despite the heavy losses his party sustained in the elections that public opinion polls suggest are the result of dissatisfaction with his leadership and policies.
If congressional Republicans are opposed to Obama acting unilaterally, as he vowed to do after the election to legalize a portion of the illegal immigrant population, they should pass comprehensive immigration reform legislation, Obama said. “And then, the executive actions that I take go away — they supersede the actions that I take.”
McConnell warned that going that route would poison the well for prospects bipartisan cooperation and likely kill any chance for immigration reform in a Republican Congress.
“It’s like waving a red flag in front of a bull to say, ‘If you guys don’t do what I want, I’m going to do it on my own,’” the incoming Senate majority leader said.
McConnell, the minority leader since 2007, is expected to be elected majority leader next week in an unchallenged vote of the Senate Republicans who will be seated when the new Congress convenes in January. McConnell said he had received calls earlier Wednesday and spoken with Obama; Reid; House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio; and even Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who has declined to say publicly whether he will support the Kentuckian for majority leader.
Republican sources said that McConnell since Tuesday evening has been fielding dozens of congratulatory calls on his promotion, including from 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, former Florida governor and possible 2016 White House candidate Jeb Bush and Vice President Joe Biden. McConnell has also spoken with all “major” Republican Senate candidates that were victorious on Tuesday, as well as most sitting GOP senators.
“As soon as his race was called, his phone lit up like a Christmas tree,” a knowledgeable Republican said.
McConnell said his agenda for the Senate includes a return to regular order and re-establishes the power of the committees to drive legislation and allowing Democrats and Republicans to receive floor votes on amendments to bills under consideration. McConnell did not rule out rolling back parliamentary rules changes implemented by Reid last year that eliminated senators’ ability to filibuster executive branch nominees.
“From institutional point of view, the Senate needs to be fixed,” McConnell said.
