Obama Defends Boehner, McConnell: Our System Requires ‘Compromise’

Friday at a press conference at the White House, President Barack Obama defended Majority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Speaker John A. Boehner (R-OH) for not being able to pass a conservative agenda.

Obama said, “They want to defund Planned Parenthood. There’s a way to do it. Pass a law, override my veto. That’s true across a whole bunch of issues that they disagree with me on. That’s how democracy works. I got no problem with it. But you have to govern. And I’m hoping that the next speaker understands that the problem Speaker Boehner had, or Mitch McConnell had, in not dismantling  ObamaCare, or not eliminating the Department of Education, or not deporting every immigrant in this country, was not because Speaker Boehner or Mitch McConnell didn’t care about conservative principles. It had to do with the fact that they can’t do it, in our system of government, which requires compromise. Just like I can’t do everything I want in passing an immigration bill, or passing a gun-safety bill. And that doesn’t mean that I throw a tantrum and try to wreck the economy and put hard-working Americans, who are just now able to dig themselves out of a massive recession, put them in harm’s way. Wrong thing to do.”

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