Now that the guessing game is over and everyone’s cards are on the table, President Obama has outlined the facets of his agenda that he’s willing to compromise with the Republicans on, and the one issue he’s not budging on: immigration.
“In a sign of how he intends to govern under a new political order with ascendant Republican leaders, Mr. Obama renewed his commitment to act on his own to allow millions of undocumented immigrants to stay in the country,” the New York Times explains.
President Obama spoke about that commitment during a news conference in the White House on Wednesday where he revealed how he interpreted the outcome of Tuesday’s elections, in which the Republicans took the U.S. Senate: Americans want politicians to “get stuff done.”
It’s a takeaway that Republicans are saying is a modest understanding of the message that voters really sent Obama and Democrats: The nation wants Republicans to insert themselves into policy decisions and offer drastic alternatives to some of Obama’s initiatives.
That the president plans to move full speed ahead with his immigration agenda is an incendiary plan, Republicans said. “It’s like waving a red flag in front of a bull,” current Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said during a news conference in Louisville.
Read more at the New York Times.