Obama vows to 'get the job done' with Republicans after Democrats lose Senate
President says he expects to take action on immigration
U.S. President Barack Obama and the incoming Republican Senate majority leader pledged Wednesday to try and turn a divided government into a force of good rather than chronic inaction, a day after sweeping Republican gains in midterm elections. Yet both warned of veto showdowns as well.
Obama said he heard the message from voters who on Tuesday put Republicans in power in the U.S. Senate and extended their majority in the House of Representatives, in a clear repudiation of the president's leadership.
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"There is no doubt that Republicans had a good night," the president said at the White House.
Obama said he is eager to hear Republican ideas for governing together, citing construction of roads, bridges and other facilities as one area ripe for cooperation. He said expanded trade was another.
Tuesday's vote gives Republicans momentum heading into the 2016 presidential race, which becomes the focus of American politics for the next two years. At issue now is whether Obama, congressional Democrats and the newly robust Republican majorities will be able to break the legislative gridlock that has gripped the U.S. capital in recent years.
Immigration on Obama's agenda
Immigration, which has been seen as an area for potential agreement, immediately emerged as an early irritant.
Obama said that unless Congress takes action by the end of the year, he will order a reduction in deportations of working immigrants living in the country illegally.
He made his pledge a short while after Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell warned the president against acting unilaterally to address the nation's immigration system.
McConnell, who will become the Senate majority leader when the new Congress takes over in January, said any executive action that Obama might take on immigration would only antagonize Republicans. He said the new Republican majority in the Senate wants to act on immigration.
"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," McConnell said at a news conference in Kentucky, where he won re-election.
McConnell said he spoke with Obama on Wednesday and says he looks forward to finding areas where Republicans and Democrats can agree, specifically citing trade agreements and rewriting the tax code.
Beyond that, he made it clear Congress will vote on legislation to approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada through the United States, and work to repeal portions of the health care law that stands as Obama's signature domestic accomplishment. He said a tax on medical devices and a mandate for individuals to purchase health insurance are Republican targets.
Obama ruled out ending the requirement for purchasing of health care, a part of the health law Republicans repudiate as a government overreach. But he pointedly did not reject repeal of the tax, which many Democrats as well as Republicans have already signalled they are ready to jettison.
Republicans are also expected to mount a major attack on federal deficits.
With lawmakers planning to return to Washington next week, Obama invited congressional leaders to a meeting Friday.
Obama could use the president's veto power if Republicans pass bills he opposes, such as a repeal of the health care law. Overriding a presidential veto requires a two-thirds vote in each chamber of Congress, an unlikely scenario.
McConnell says 'no government shutdown'
McConnell has been a severe critic of Obama, but has also helped broker bipartisan deals that ended last year's government shutdown and twice averted federal default.
He promised Wednesday that "there will be no government shutdown or default on the national debt." Still, he said veto showdowns are also possible in the two-year era of divided government just ahead.
McConnell, famously taciturn, smiled and joked with reporters one day after the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. He and House Speaker John Boehner will have the authority to set the congressional agenda.
The Election Day thumping of the Democratic Party is a low point for the 53-year-old president, who electrified the world with his election in 2008 as the first African-American president and was comfortably re-elected in 2012. Though Democrats lost the House in 2010, partly in a backlash to his health care overhaul, this will be the first time Obama must also deal with a Republican-led Senate.
Republicans picked up a least seven Senate seats, giving them at least 52 in the 100-member Senate.
Republicans had made Obama's presidency the core issue of their campaigns, even though he wasn't on the ballot. They tapped into a well of discouragement at a time many Americans are upset with a sluggish economic recovery and are besieged by troubling news, such as the spread of Ebola and the rapid rise of Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.
Nearly two-thirds of voters interviewed after casting ballots said the U.S. was seriously on the wrong track. Only about 30 percent said the U.S. was headed in the right direction.
In the House, Republicans were on track to meet or exceed the 246 seats they held during Democrat President Harry S. Truman's administration more than 60 years ago.
The outcome offered parallels to the final midterm election of Republican George W. Bush's presidency, when Democrats won sweeping victories amid voter discontent with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Bourbon summit?
The 53-year-old president now faces a Congress under two-house control by Republicans for the first time in his tenure — and a lame duck status that becomes more of a check on his political power with each passing day.
McConnell, 72 and famously taciturn, smiled and joked with reporters on the day after achieving a lifelong ambition.
Still, the two said they had had a pleasant telephone conversation earlier in the day.
"I would enjoy having some Kentucky bourbon with Mitch McConnell," said Obama.
That led the Kentucky Bourbon Trail tour's official Twitter account to tweet out an offer to help set up an official bourbon summit between the two leaders and provide some supplies.
-The Associated Press