Two of the millennial congressmen elected in the 2014 midterms appeared Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” to talk frustration with President Obama and their plans to break through the Washington gridlock.
Rep.-elect Carlos Curbelo (R – Fla.) and Rep.-elect Lee Zeldin (R- N.Y.) both said that the new GOP majority Congress should work to find areas of common ground between Congress and the president, tackle those, and then move on to the bigger issues like repealing Obamacare.
“People believe that the country isn’t heading in the right direction. They also know that it’s not too late. I think people believe in America. They believe that there are better days ahead,” Zeldin said. “When you have a balance of power, there’s no way for either party to have it 100 percent of their way all of the time. They want to see liberals and conservatives, Republicans and Democrats sit down at the table, see where you can find common ground to move America forward.”
Curbelo agreed.
“I think what both the president and congressional leaders should do is go after the low-lying fruit. There are some changes to Obamacare that I think both parties can agree to and maybe we can start there and set a good tone. And then allow, you know, build from there and start working,” he said.
Curbelo also said that Obama should rely less on executive actions and wait for Congress to pass bills, particularly on major issues like immigration reform.
“I think the president should be patient on immigration reform because I think it can get done in this next Congress and the president has shown to be very patient on this issue because he promised he would get it done in 2008 during the first year of his presidency. Didn’t move a finger for it,” Curbelo said. “So, think now to rush into executive action and put at risk the possibility of getting immigration reform done when Senate Republicans, many have already shown a willingness to do it. And I think in the House Republican conference we can also make progress on this issue. I think it would be a major mistake.”
Zeldin added that it should be easier to actually get bills to Obama’s desk as a result of the Republican-led Congress.
“Over the course of the last couple of years there were almost 400 bills that were passed in the House that Harry Reid will not bring to the floor to debate and be voted upon. Those dynamics completely changed now,” he said. “Those legislation — those pieces of legislation now will end up on the president’s desk for him to either sign or veto. Just because the president going forward may indicate that any of this legislation that is going to be going through Congress will be vetoed by him does not make that acceptable. So I think that Republicans and Democrats in Congress need to work together but a lot of these bills that didn’t make their way through Congress now are going to the president.”
Watch the clip below:
