President Obama: "It's Time for Us to Take Care of Business"
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/11/05/president-obama-its-time-us-take-care-business?utm_source=snapshot&utm_medium=email&utm_content=1152014-topper
Earlier this afternoon, President Obama addressed the White House press corps to discuss the midterm elections and his next steps forward.
"What stands out to me," he said, "is that the American people sent a message, one that they’ve sent for several elections now. They expect the people they elect to work as hard as they do. They expect us to focus on their ambitions and not ours. They want us to get the job done."
"As President, I have a unique responsibility to try and make this town work"
The President said that he has "a unique responsibility" to make Washington work. In that vein, the President will host the Democratic and Republican leadership at the White House this Friday for a meeting to chart a new course forward.
And in a message to all Americans -- both those who voted yesterday and those who didn't -- the President made clear that he hears them:
To everyone who voted, I want you to know that I hear you. To the two-thirds of voters who chose not to participate in the process yesterday, I hear you, too. All of us have to give more Americans a reason to feel like the ground is stable beneath their feet, that the future is secure, that there’s a path for young people to succeed, and that folks here in Washington are concerned about them. So I plan on spending every moment of the next two-plus years doing my job the best I can to keep this country safe and to make sure that more Americans share in its prosperity.
President Obama also noted that while we've made real progress since the financial crisis, we have to do more to ensure that every American can share in our country's prosperity:
We’ve just got to keep at it until every American feels the gains of a growing economy where it matters most, and that's in their own lives.
Obviously, much of that will take action from Congress. And I’m eager to work with the new Congress to make the next two years as productive as possible. I'm committed to making sure that I measure ideas not by whether they are from Democrats or Republicans, but whether they work for the American people. And that’s not to say that we won’t disagree over some issues that we’re passionate about. We will. Congress will pass some bills I cannot sign. I'm pretty sure I'll take some actions that some in Congress will not like. That’s natural. That's how our democracy works. But we can surely find ways to work together on issues where there’s broad agreement among the American people.
David Hudson November 05, 2014 06:40 PM EST Share This Post
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Earlier this afternoon, President Obama addressed the White House press corps to discuss the midterm elections and his next steps forward.
"What stands out to me," he said, "is that the American people sent a message, one that they’ve sent for several elections now. They expect the people they elect to work as hard as they do. They expect us to focus on their ambitions and not ours. They want us to get the job done."
"As President, I have a unique responsibility to try and make this town work"
The President said that he has "a unique responsibility" to make Washington work. In that vein, the President will host the Democratic and Republican leadership at the White House this Friday for a meeting to chart a new course forward.
And in a message to all Americans -- both those who voted yesterday and those who didn't -- the President made clear that he hears them:
To everyone who voted, I want you to know that I hear you. To the two-thirds of voters who chose not to participate in the process yesterday, I hear you, too. All of us have to give more Americans a reason to feel like the ground is stable beneath their feet, that the future is secure, that there’s a path for young people to succeed, and that folks here in Washington are concerned about them. So I plan on spending every moment of the next two-plus years doing my job the best I can to keep this country safe and to make sure that more Americans share in its prosperity.
President Obama also noted that while we've made real progress since the financial crisis, we have to do more to ensure that every American can share in our country's prosperity:
We’ve just got to keep at it until every American feels the gains of a growing economy where it matters most, and that's in their own lives.
Obviously, much of that will take action from Congress. And I’m eager to work with the new Congress to make the next two years as productive as possible. I'm committed to making sure that I measure ideas not by whether they are from Democrats or Republicans, but whether they work for the American people. And that’s not to say that we won’t disagree over some issues that we’re passionate about. We will. Congress will pass some bills I cannot sign. I'm pretty sure I'll take some actions that some in Congress will not like. That’s natural. That's how our democracy works. But we can surely find ways to work together on issues where there’s broad agreement among the American people.
President Barack Obama responds to a question during a press conference in the East Room of the White House, Nov. 5, 2014
President Barack Obama responds to a question during a press conference in the East Room of the White House, Nov. 5, 2014.
"There's still business on the docket that needs attention this year"
As the President noted, however, there's still work that needs our attention right now -- and detailed three areas in which the Administration and Congress can work together over the next few weeks:
On Ebola: "I’m submitting a request to Congress for funding to ensure that our doctors, scientists, and troops have the resources that they need to combat the spread of Ebola in Africa, and to increase our preparedness for any future cases here at home."
On ISIL: "I’m going to begin engaging Congress over a new Authorization to Use Military Force against ISIL. The world needs to know we are united behind this effort, and the men and women of our military deserve our clear and unified support."
On keeping the government open: "Back in September, Congress passed short-term legislation to keep the government open and operating into December. That gives Congress five weeks to pass a budget for the rest of the fiscal year. And I hope that they’ll do it in the same bipartisan, drama-free way they did earlier this year. When our companies are steadily creating jobs -- which they are -- we don’t want to inject any new uncertainty into the world economy and to the American economy."
"The point is, it's time for us to take care of business. There are things this country has to do that can’t wait another two years or another four years."
"I'm optimistic about our future"
President Obama concluded his remarks by expressing his optimism about America's future. Making clear that "the United States has big things to do," the President said that we'll be able to make progress if we do it together:
The truth is I’m optimistic about our future. I have good reason to be. I meet Americans all across the country who are determined, and big-hearted, and ask what they can do, and never give up, and overcome obstacles. And they inspire me every single day. So the fact is I still believe in what I said when I was first elected six years ago last night. For all the maps plastered across our TV screens today, and for all the cynics who say otherwise, I continue to believe we are simply more than just a collection of red and blue states. We are the United States.
And whether it's immigration or climate change, or making sure our kids are going to the best possible schools, to making sure that our communities are creating jobs; whether it's stopping the spread of terror and disease, to opening up doors of opportunity to everybody who’s willing to work hard and take responsibility -- the United States has big things to do. We can and we will make progress if we do it together. And I look forward to the work ahead.
"The United States has big things to do. We can and we will make progress if we do it together."
After midterm rout, Obama says he got nation’s message
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-republicans-ready-to-work-toward-finding-common-ground/2014/11/05/ab332396-64f4-11e4-9fdc-d43b053ecb4d_story.html?hpid=z1
After a stinging rebuke at the polls, President Obama vowed Wednesday to respond to the frustrations of the American electorate by using his final two years to forge compromises with newly empowered congressional Republicans and break the political gridlock that has defined Washington over the past several years.
“I hear you,” Obama said at a White House news conference, a day after voters gave the GOP unilateral control over the legislative branch and dealt a blow to Obama’s agenda after six years in office.
“Obviously, Republicans had a good night, and they deserve credit for running good campaigns,” the president said. But he emphasized that there was a message for both parties in the results — and the two more years of divided government they will produce: “The American people . . . expect the people they elect to work as hard as they do. They expect us to focus on their ambitions and not ours. They want us to get the job done. All of us in both parties have a responsibility to address that sentiment.” Despite his nod to shared responsibility, however, Obama sounded less introspective and remorseful in the wake of the Democrats’ resounding midterm election defeat this year than he did four years ago, when he described the outcome as a “shellacking” for Democrats. The president noted that two-thirds of those eligible did not vote Tuesday, suggesting the lack of a broad GOP mandate, and he reminded reporters that the policies he has championed, including an increase in the minimum wage, were endorsed by voters in a number of states.
Obama pledged to work with his rivals on areas including taxes, infrastructure and trade, and the hopeful notes he sounded were matched by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), whose reelection puts him in line to become majority leader early next year. The president called McConnell on Wednesday to congratulate him on his victory and discuss areas of common ground, and Obama will meet with the bipartisan congressional leadership at the White House on Friday.
“We’ll see whether we can work with the president. I hope so,” McConnell said at a news conference in Kentucky. “We’re going to pass legislation. Some of it he may not like, but this gridlock and dysfunction can be ended.”
Even as both sides suggested an openness to new cooperation, there are several immediate stumbling blocks, including potential White House action on immigration, the ongoing standoff over the stalled Keystone XL oil-sands pipeline and Obama’s appointment of a new attorney general. All have the potential to quickly reignite the toxic political environment even before McConnell takes the Senate gavel.
Republicans vehemently oppose Obama’s pledge, first issued in the summer and reiterated Wednesday, that he intends to use his executive authority to stem deportations of some undocumented immigrants before the end of the year.
Obama has argued that he has been forced into taking executive action because Congress failed to act on the problem by approving a comprehensive legislative overhaul of border-control laws. But McConnell on Wednesday compared the idea to “waving a red flag in front of a bull.”
I hope he won’t do that,” McConnell said. “That would poison the well.”
But Obama is facing a revolt among Hispanic supporters who have escalated their calls for the White House to provide relief for the nation’s more than 11 million undocumented immigrants. Obama’s decision in September to delay his administrative relief until after the election — at the request of Senate Democrats fearful of the electoral ramification in conservative states — intensified anger among immigration advocates.
You lost the Senate anyway,” Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) said at a news conference in Chicago on Wednesday. “The politics are over. The Senate has been lost. You’re still president of the United States of America, and it’s time for you to act boldly.”
The question for Obama is whether he feels the rout of Democrats — which Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) on Wednesday called “a real ass-whuppin’ ” — constrains or liberates him. Inside the West Wing, presidential advisers said the election results could give the president greater latitude to act unilaterally on immigration, because Republicans can pursue their own immigration bill if they do not like it.
Obama also made clear that he would resist any efforts by his opponents to undercut his landmark policies on health care and the environment. And McConnell acknowledged that Obama remains “a player” even as Republicans pursue their own initiatives.
“The veto pen is a pretty powerful tool,” McConnell said. But he urged Obama to follow the leads of Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, “who are good examples of accepting the government you have rather than fantasizing about the government you think you have.”
More broadly, White House officials were mapping out a new strategy even before the final results had come in Tuesday. In the weeks before Election Day, Chief of Staff Denis McDonough had been leading a planning process to determine what the administration could achieve during the rest of the year and in early 2015 if the GOP took control of the Senate, according to a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations.
Senior Obama aides gathered for their regular 7:45 a.m. meeting with McDonough on Wednesday, and the session ran long as staff members discussed the dramatic shift in power on Capitol Hill. When Obama joined them in the Roosevelt Room nearly two hours later, the official said, the president made a point to remind them of the power of the office and emphasized that they still have an opportunity to improve the lives of the American public.
“The United States government is the most powerful force on the planet,” the president told them, the official recalled. Using the same phrase he would repeat later in his news conference, Obama told his aides he intended “to squeeze every last drop out of the last two years.”
Still, the election results were sobering for Obama. GOP candidates won seats currently held by Democrats in Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Montana, North Carolina, South Dakota and West Virginia — more than enough to seize control of the Senate for the first time since 2007. In a year in which several Republican governors initially appeared vulnerable, the party ended up winning gubernatorial races all across the country, including big blue-state surprises in Maryland and Massachusetts.
The poor showing has led some Obama allies to call for a shake-up of the White House staff, but the president and White House press secretary Josh Earnest played down the idea of a major staff overhaul.
Manchin said the responsibility for the Democrats’ trouncing “started at the White House and this administration, and it went all the way to leadership. . . . I think that people felt that the Democrats didn’t work, did not reach out, basically played politics all the way through.”
In recent months, Obama has set aside between 45 minutes to an hour each week to call lawmakers, according to aides, though the White House kept details of those conversations private to protect members’ confidence. But on Wednesday the White House released the names of 25 Republican and Democratic officials the president phoned Tuesday night, eager to telegraph the kind of outreach he will be pursuing in a changed political landscape.
The list included several Republican lawmakers Obama will probably be negotiating with in the next two years, including Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) and James M. Inhofe (Okla.) and Sen.-elect Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), as well as Republican gubernatorial winners from Alabama, Arkansas and Oklahoma.
Ed O’Keefe contributed to this report.
Republicans just won the election. President Obama doesn’t much care.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/11/05/republicans-just-won-the-election-president-obama-doesnt-much-care/?tid=trending_strip_2
Freshman class is young by U.S. Senate standards but have government experience
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/freshman-class-is-young-by-us-senate-standards-but-have-government-experience/2014/11/05/b943df0c-6530-11e4-bb14-4cfea1e742d5_story.html?hpid=z2
Midterm disaster rips apart awkward ties between Obama and Senate Democrats
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/midterm-disaster-rips-apart-awkward-ties-between-obama-and-senate-democrats/2014/11/05/5bdd257a-650e-11e4-9fdc-d43b053ecb4d_story.html?hpid=z2
Dana Milbank: Obama seems numb to this latest ‘shellacking’ of Democrats
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obama-seems-numb-to-this-shellacking/2014/11/05/e4873444-6548-11e4-bb14-4cfea1e742d5_story.html?tid=pm_pop
President Obama:
Yesterday, millions of Americans cast their ballots. Republicans had a good night, and I congratulate all the candidates who won.
But 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.
As we make progress, I'll need your help, too. Over the weeks and months ahead, I'll be looking to Americans like you, asking you to stay engaged.
I am optimistic about our future. Because for all the maps plastered across our screens today, for all the cynics who say otherwise, we are more than a simple collection of red and blue states. We are the United States.
And yesterday, millions of Americans -- Democrats and Republicans, women and men, young and old, black and white -- took the time out of their day to perform a simple, profound act of citizenship. That's something we shouldn't forget amid the din of political commentary. Because making progress starts with showing up.
Let's get to work.
President Barack Obama