Republican leader warns Obama on immigration
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama and Republicans who swept midterm Congressional elections headed toward a showdown over immigration, with the leader of the House bluntly warning the president against taking sweeping action without congressional approval.
“When you play with matches you take the risk of burning yourself,” House Speaker John Boehner said at his first news conference after elections in which Republicans captured control of the Senate that takes over in January and emerged with their largest majority in the House in at least 70 years.
“And he’s going to burn himself if he continues to go down this path,” Boehner said.
A day after Tuesday’s election, Obama defiantly stood by his pledge to act on his own to reduce deportations, grant work permits and improve border security by the end of the year. The president cast his executive actions as an inducement for Republicans to pass their own bill to overhaul the country’s broken immigration system.
The Senate’s likely majority leader next year, Mitch McConnell, has said such a move would only complicate efforts to pass a bill.
Boehner made his comments one day before he and the other congressional leaders head to the White House for a lunch meeting with Obama. Even before the new Congress convenes, the outgoing one is scheduled to meet next week to wrap up business left over from the past two years.
Sketching an early agenda for 2015, Boehner said the Congress that convenes in January hopes to pass legislation approving construction of the long-stalled Keystone XL pipeline planned to carry Canadian oil to the United States.
At the White House, spokesman Josh Earnest was equivocal about whether the president might sign a bill along those lines. “We’ll consider any sort of proposals that are passed by Congress,” he said.
Boehner also said Congress will vote to repeal the health care law that stands as Obama signature domestic accomplishment, but the speaker conceded the measure may not clear the Senate despite a new Republican majority. Democrats will have more than enough seats to block passage.
Instead, Boehner said the Republican-controlled Congress might seek piecemeal changes in the law, which he said “is hurting our economy.”
Republican gained at least seven seats in the 100-member Senate, more than enough to grab the majority next year. With three Senate races still uncalled, the Republicans could win more seats.
In one race, Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana faced a complicated outlook for her runoff campaign against Republican Bill Cassidy. The Senate Democrats’ campaign committee began canceling plans Thursday for televisions in Louisiana’s major markets to help Landrieu.
Even before confronting Democrats and the White House, Boehner and McConnell are likely to face a steady stream of management challenges from within their fractious party as they pursue a Republican agenda.
Among them are a strong presence of deeply conservative, tea party-backed lawmakers in both houses, softer-edged, conservative senators who will face re-election in 2016, and a group of presidential hopefuls that includes Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Marco Rubio of Florida and Rand Paul of Kentucky.