What better way to start the new year than a little “audacious” executive action?
White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast, “we’ll do audacious executive action throughout the course of the rest of the year, I am confident of that.”
The Hill has the story:
The comments are a clear sign the president will continue his go-it-alone approach, which has angered Republicans in Congress.They also underscore how, aside from a handful of proposals such as trade and criminal justice reform, there is little chance for Obama to work with Congress in an election year. Obama did not mention any possible executive actions during his State of the Union address Tuesday night, and McDonough did not hint on which areas the president will sidestep Congress and set policy on his own.Last week, the president issued new unilateral actions designed to expand background checks for gun purchases. White House officials have warned the president could act on his own to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay if Congress doesn’t approve a plan to do so. Such a move would surely trigger a showdown with lawmakers, who have passed laws barring detainees from being housed on U.S. soil. McDonough said the White House is crafting its executive actions carefully to “make sure the steps we have taken are ones we can lock down and not be subjected to undoing through [Congress] or otherwise.”
The White House has said they will not take any further action on gun control, sort of. At least based on the current gun control debate standings. But they won’t rule it out either:
President Obama’s immigration reform via executive action was a flub (thanks to Texas), but that hasn’t deterred him from attempting to circumvent his co-equal cohorts on the Hill.
The end of the Obama reign might be in sight, but the fight is certainly not over.
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