President Obama devoted several minutes at a surprise Tuesday White House press briefing to combating the conventional wisdom that it’s within his power — and the power of the presidency more generally — to make members of Congress, particularly members of the opposite party, cooperate.
But though he placed the onus on congressional Republicans to work constructively with him — specifically to replace sequestration — he did allude to an ongoing effort to provide GOP elected officials with the political cover they need to reach a budget agreement with Democrats.
Responding to a question from ABC’s Jonathan Karl that was premised on the notion that Obama might not have enough “juice” to push the rest of his agenda through Congress, Obama reminded the assembled reporters that elected officials are independent agents who reach their own policymaking decisions.
“You seem to suggest somehow these folks over there have no responsibilities and my job is to somehow get them to behave,” Obama said. “That’s their job. They’re elected, members of Congress are elected, to do what’s right for their constituents and the American people.”
Obama was referring specifically to Congress’ unusual haste to alleviate the consequences of sequestration for air travelers, and more broadly to the GOP’s positions on sequestration, which have changed over time, depending on particulars.
“You’ll recall that even as recently as my campaign Republicans were saying sequester is terrible, this is a disaster, it is going to be disastrous to the economy,” Obama reminded reporters. “Then when it was determined that doing something about it might mean we close some tax loopholes for the wealthy and well connected then they said, ‘you know what? We’ll take the sequester. The president is crying wolf, he’s chicken little. The sequester no problem.’ …
Despite the fact that a lot of members of Congress were suggesting that somehow the sequester was a victory for them and this wouldn’t hurt the economy, what we now know is what I warned earlier … is happening. It’s slowed our growth. It’s resulted in people being thrown out of work and it’s hurting folks all across the country. The fact that Congress responded to the short term problem of flight delays by giving us the option of shifting money that’s designed to repair and improve airports over the long term to fix the short-term problem, that’s not a solution.
Obama has been in active discussion with GOP senators to reach a budget consensus, and he alluded to efforts the administration and congressional Democrats have been undertaking to create the procedural and rhetorical space on Capitol Hill to allow Republicans to agree to a budget deal without appearing to have caved or cooperated with the White House.
“Ultimately they themselves are going to have to say we’ll do the right thing,” Obama said. “There are members in the Senate right now and I suspect members in the House as well who understand that deep down, but they’re worried about their politics. It’s tough. Their base thinks that compromise would mean somehow a betrayal. They’re worried about primaries and I understand all that. And we’re going to try to do everything we can to create a permission structure to do what’s best for the country.”
