ELECTION 2014 - Congress 2015 Goals

Some people will never change, especially Republicans.

"Impatience with Washington drove off-year electorate" PBS NewsHour 11/6/2014

Excerpt

GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  The political earthquake from Tuesday’s elections continues to reverberate.  Today, it made its way to Capitol Hill, where there were new questions about whether the president and the soon to be Republican Congress can really get anything done.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER, Speaker of the House:  My job is not to get along with the president just to get along with him, although we actually have a nice relationship.  The fact is, my job is to listen to my members and listen to the American people and make their priorities our priorities.

GWEN IFILL:  A day after the post-election promises of cooperation, signs of sharper edges were beginning to show.

Writing in The Wall Street Journal, House Speaker John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, the next Senate majority leader, outlined their objectives for the new Congress, among them, authorize the Keystone XL pipeline, overhaul the tax code, revise or repeal the Affordable Care Act, and rein in the federal debt.

There was no mention of immigration reform, even though President Obama threatened yesterday to act on his own by year’s end.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:  If they want to get a bill done, whether it’s during the lame-duck or next year, I’m eager to see what they have to offer.  But what I’m not going to do is just wait.

GWEN IFILL:  McConnell had warned that’s like waving a red flag at a bull.  Boehner chose his own metaphors today to make the same point.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER:  I believe that if the president continues to act on his own, he is going to poison the well.  When you play with matches, you take the risk of burning yourself.  And he’s going to burn himself if he continues to go down this path.

GWEN IFILL:  As for Keystone, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the president will consider any bill Congress sends him, pending a court ruling.

JOSH EARNEST, White House Press Secretary:  That’s a process that currently is winding its ways through the State Department and one that right now is at least going to be influenced by the decision from a Nebraska judge about the proper route for that pipeline through that state.