President Obama held a press conference yesterday to discuss the mid-terms and his plans for the next two years two and a half months of his presidency, 805 days to be exact. The president has an advantage there, by the way. During those 805 days, if history is any guide, John Boehner’s and Ted Cruz’s Congress will be in session about 200 days … total.
The president also sent a letter to make sure that the important point was not missed because, frankly, the White House press corps’ interests are quite different from the American peoples’. From the White House:
… what stands out to me is that the message Americans sent yesterday is one you’ve sent for several elections in a row now. You expect the people you elect to work as hard as you do. You expect us to focus on your ambitions — not ours — and you want us to get the job done. Period.
I plan on spending every moment of the next two years rolling up my sleeves and working as hard as I can for the American people. This country has made real and undeniable progress in the six years since the 2008 economic crisis. But our work will not be done until every single American feels the gains of a growing economy where it matters most: in your own lives.
While I’m sure we’ll continue to disagree on some issues that we’re passionate about, I’m eager to work with Congress over the next two years to get the job done. The challenges that lay ahead of us are far too important to allow partisanship or ideology to prevent our progress as a nation.
The president was welcome to constructive changes to the Affordable Care Act, he asked for Congress’ help in procuring funds to fight Ebola and authorizing the use of military force against ISIL, and looked forward to working together on the budget, which expires on December 11. He hoped that comprehensive immigration reform could be passed.
But what he did not do is back down on his plans to issue an executive order expanding the deferred action program, giving millions of people who lack documentation a chance to get out from under the dark cloud of deportation.
That’s a commitment I made not just to the American people — and to businesses and the evangelical community and the law enforcement folks and everybody who’s looked at this issue and thinks that we need immigration reform — that’s a commitment that I also made to John Boehner, that I would act in the absence of action by Congress.
So before the end of the year, we’re going to take whatever lawful actions that I can take that I believe will improve the functioning of our immigration system. […]
But what I’m not going to do is just wait. I think it’s fair to say that I’ve shown a lot of patience and have tried to work on a bipartisan basis as much as possible, and I’m going to keep on doing so. But in the meantime, let’s figure out what we can do lawfully through executive actions to improve the functioning of the existing system.
And when asked whether taking this action would somehow “poison the well”, a well that the Republicans have refused to drink from for 4 years, he called bs on the notion that the people upset by his actions are people who have any interest in immigration reform:
I have no doubt that there will be some Republicans who are angered or frustrated by any executive action that I may take. Those are folks, I just have to say, who are also deeply opposed to immigration reform in any form and blocked the House from being able to pass a bipartisan bill. […]
… if, in fact, there is a great eagerness on the part of Republicans to tackle a broken immigration system, then they have every opportunity to do it. My executive actions not only do not prevent them from passing a law that supersedes those actions, but should be a spur for them to actually try to get something done.
The president used the phrase “two years” over and over and over again throughout the press conference (I counted 12).
President Obama will not allow the Republicans to nullify the 2012 presidential election with their claims of a mandate from a low turnout mid-term election.
To which I say, “Thanks, Obama”. 🙂
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