New York Times
By Carl Hulse
June 3, 2014
WASHINGTON
— The Obama administration’s actions in the case of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl
and in issuing new power plant emissions restrictions have deepened its
rift with congressional
Republicans, who see the moves as the latest troubling examples of the
White House circumventing Congress.
Republicans
say the exchange of Sergeant Bergdahl for five Taliban members without
congressional consultation, as well as the use of executive authority to
try to force
reductions in power plant pollution, make it more unlikely that major
proposals like an immigration overhaul can advance this year.
“Clearly,
the president’s own actions on a range of issues continue to undermine
the American people’s trust in him,” said Michael Steel, a spokesman for
the House speaker,
John A. Boehner of Ohio.
Mr.
Boehner has said repeatedly that while he would like to move forward
with changes in immigration law, he cannot overcome strong resistance
from conservative House
Republicans until the president demonstrates he can be trusted to
enforce new restrictions that would be part of any immigration
compromise.
On
Tuesday, the speaker issued a statement saying that the swap of
Sergeant Bergdahl “has invited serious questions into how this exchange
went down and the calculations
the White House and relevant agencies made in moving forward without
consulting Congress despite assurances it would re-engage with members
on both sides of the aisle.”
Mr.
Boehner’s stance and the angry reaction of other Republicans to the
most recent series of events indicated that rather than progressing,
President Obama’s relationship
with congressional Republicans was instead going backward.
Top
Democrats and other analysts have suggested that Mr. Boehner’s
immigration stance is a convenient excuse for Republicans to refrain
from taking action and a way to
put the onus for the stalemate on the president rather than on
Republicans, who have seen a decline in their standing with Hispanics.
It was also seen as an effort by members of the House Republican
leadership to buy time to get through primaries before they
tried their hands at immigration legislation later in the fall.
Even
if the raising of the trust issue was mainly a gambit by Mr. Boehner,
the resentment Republicans are showing over both recent decisions by the
White House would make
it very difficult for congressional Republicans to now reverse course
and say the president had regained their confidence.
As
they assessed the backlash to the decisions on Sergeant Bergdahl and
emissions, Democrats said they had already made an offer to Republicans
that could defuse any trust
issue if that was what was actually keeping them from moving ahead on
immigration.
“If
that is their true concern, we can meet their objections completely and
totally by setting the first day of implementation as Jan. 20, 2017,
and President Obama will
have nothing to do with implementation,” said Senator Charles E.
Schumer of New York, the No. 3 Senate Democrat, who has been discussing
immigration policy with Republicans.
Mr.
Schumer said mistrust between the president and congressional
Republicans should not be the reason an immigration overhaul was
delayed. “I believe an excuse like this
will not stand in the way if they want to do immigration reform,” he
said.
Republicans
said the proposal promoted by Senator Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat
and majority leader, and Mr. Schumer to pass the overhaul now and apply
it later did
not make sense to them, and it does not seem to be winning many
Republican converts.
Applying
the pressure, Democrats have said that if House Republicans do not act
before the start of the August recess, Mr. Obama could use his executive
power to reduce
the deportations that have angered Hispanics.
That
is precisely the kind of threat that can cause Republicans to dig in.
Any mention of the president’s willingness to use his “pen and phone” to
advance his and the
Democratic agenda tends to set off a backlash from Republicans,
stiffening the very stalemate that can lead to executive action.
Republicans
are evidently not the only lawmakers worried about trust and the White
House. Senator Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat and chairwoman
of the Intelligence
Committee, said Tuesday that the White House expressed to her its
regret for the lack of notice on the prisoner swap. She said it was
unfortunate that the administration lacked sufficient trust in Congress
to notify senators ahead of time.
For
months, Republicans have sought to emphasize what they see as the Obama
administration’s abuse of executive power on a variety of health care,
environmental and less
visible policies. It is a major source of contention, as well as a
topic that both enrages and energizes Republican and conservative
voters.
While
it alienates Republicans, the president’s willingness to employ the
power of his office to go around opposition Republicans resonates very
positively with core Democratic
voters.
For
instance, an appeal on Tuesday from the Democratic Congressional
Campaign Committee carried the subject line “! Obama Executive Action”
and praised the president for
being willing to push the new Environmental Protection Agency emission
regulations despite the objections of Republicans.
“Climate change-denying Republicans have met their match,” it said, urging supporters to get behind the president on the issue.
Tension
between the president’s willingness to mount end-runs around opposition
Republicans and their growing unrest with that willingness seems likely
to remain if not
intensify during the months before the midterm elections. As a result,
it seems unlikely the two sides can restore a level of trust that would
allow them to move forward in even the few policy areas where there is
some mutual interest.
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