Obama readies vetoes as Republicans eye the Senate

Obama, who has wielded his veto pen just twice since entering the Oval Office, would find himself in a vastly changed political landscape.

Among other things, Republicans would force the president to either veto or compromise on rolling back parts of Obamacare, approving the Keystone XL pipeline and blocking Environmental Protection Agency rules. They will push for cuts to programs Obama likes while also putting forward their own ideas on things like school vouchers, jobs and tax policy.

Senior Republicans are openly talking about attaching riders to appropriations bills, which would force the president to veto crucial legislation altogether or swallow GOP provisions unpopular with his progressive base.

“I’m looking forward to our first budget battle,” said Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who is attempting to unseat Democratic Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu in one of the nation’s most competitive Senate races.

“We can put on riders to basically say the EPA shall not use money to restrict the growth of jobs,” he told the Washington Examiner. “The president can veto the whole thing or say, ‘Hmm, the EPA is destroying jobs.’ ”

Obama has never had to deal with an entirely Republican Congress, and such a development would ensure that he no longer employs the hands-off approach to legislative dealings that characterized his first six years in office.

Still, conservatives see clear pitfalls for their party if they finally take control of both chambers of Congress, fearing it would lead the party into a political trap ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

“Here’s the good news if you’re a Republican: Republicans are likely to win the Senate. The bad news: Republicans are likely to win the Senate,” said GOP strategist Patrick Griffin.

“If we misbehave, it will be very difficult to win a national election in 2016,” Griffin added. “The Republican agenda needs to be thoughtful, calculated and non-offensive to a large slice of America.”

For GOP leaders, the immediate challenge is determining which bills to send to Obama’s desk. There’s a fundamental difference in how Republicans will legislate, as they can no longer craft bills of purely symbolic importance, destined for a quick death in the upper chamber.

In other words, gone would be the days of trying to repeal Obamacare root and branch, an obvious nonstarter with Obama. Instead, Republicans could focus on trying to gut individual provisions of the law, such as the medical device tax, the employer mandate and so-called risk corridors that conservatives consider a bailout for the insurance industry.

Most recently, a bill that would allow consumers to keep insurance plans not meeting Obamacare standards passed the House. The legislation isn’t going anywhere, at least as long as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is in charge.

That all changes with a Republican Senate, said Cassidy, sponsor of the GOP bill in the House.

A Senate takeover “gives us a collective bully pulpit,” the Louisiana Republican predicted.

In the wake of a major electoral defeat, Cassidy said Democrats “would come to the realization that ‘Maybe I need to be less dogmatic in my opposition to Obamacare changes.’ ”

However, Republicans would need to showcase a level of unity not seen in recent years, as the Tea Party wing of the party has clashed with the conservative Establishment.

And while White House officials won’t publicly concede the loss of the Senate, they are privately suggesting that Republicans would overplay their hand should they prove victorious in November.

“Republicans don’t exactly have the gift of restraint,” quipped one senior administration official, alluding to 2013’s government shutdown. “Their vision is not what most of the country wants. They would damage their brand even more — if that’s possible.”