Setting up an immediate confrontation with the Republican majorities in Congress, the White House on Tuesday threatened to veto bipartisan bills calling for completion of the Keystone oil pipeline and altering Obamacare’s definition of a full-time job.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said unequivocally that Mr. Obama would reject both bills if they reach his desk and blamed Republican leaders for forcing early showdowns with the president.
“It raises questions about the willingness of Republicans to actually cooperate with this administration when you consider that the very first bill that’s introduced in the United States Senate is one that Republicans know the president opposes,” he said of the pipeline legislation.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker John A. Boehner blasted the administration’s veto threats.
“The president threatening to veto the first bipartisan infrastructure bill of the new Congress must come as a shock to the American people who spoke loudly in November in favor of bipartisan accomplishments,” said Mr. McConnell, Kentucky Republican.
He noted that Mr. Obama declined to issue a veto threat in December when Sen. Mary L. Landrieu, Louisiana Democrat, was championing a pipeline bill while “trying to save her job.” She lost her re-election bid.
Mr. Boehner, Ohio Republican, said the veto threat proves that Mr. Obama is “hopelessly out of touch.”
“After years of manufacturing every possible excuse, today President Obama was finally straight … about where he truly stands,” Mr. Boehner said. “Fringe extremists in the president’s party are the only ones who oppose Keystone, but the president has chosen to side with them instead of the American people and the government’s own scientific evidence that this project is safe for the environment.”
House Republicans have scheduled a Friday vote on a measure to approve the pipeline. The Senate is expected to begin debate soon and could vote on the legislation within a few weeks.
The promised veto of the Keystone bill was not a surprise. Mr. Obama has downplayed the economic benefits of the proposed Canada-to-Texas pipeline project and questioned whether it would contribute to climate change while failing to affect gas prices. His administration, under heavy pressure from environmentalists, has delayed a decision on the permit for years.
But the veto threats against the pipeline and the Obamacare legislation, on the very day that Congress was sworn in, set an ominous tone for Mr. Obama’s chances of finding common ground with the Republican leadership. Both bills have attracted Democratic support.
Sen. Joe Manchin III, a West Virginia Democrat who favors the pipeline, said it didn’t make sense for Mr. Obama to dismiss Keystone before lawmakers could even meet on it or strike compromises.
“Don’t tell me that before you even taste the stew, you don’t like it,” he said. “That’s insane.”
In brief comments to reporters, Mr. Obama offered congratulations to Mr. McConnell and Mr. Boehner for their leadership posts.
“I’m very much looking forward to working with them,” the president said during a meeting with governors in the Oval Office. “I think we’re going to actually have, hopefully, a productive 2015.”
The president said he expects some “pitched battles” with Republicans.
“I’m confident that there are going to be areas where we disagree,” he said. “But I’m also confident that there are enormous areas of potential agreement that would deliver for the American people, and we just have to make sure that we focus on those areas where we can make significant progress together.”
Areas of cooperation probably won’t include reforming Obamacare or constructing the oil pipeline, two of the biggest priorities for Republicans.
In April, 18 House Democrats voted for the Obamacare bill, which would change the law’s definition of the full-time workweek from 30 hours to 40 hours. The move would reduce the number of workers who fall under Obamacare’s employer mandate.
The House is scheduled to vote on the bill Thursday. The Senate also plans to take up the legislation this week.
Mr. Earnest said the president opposes the bill because it “would be putting even more workers in a situation where we could see some employers cutting back on their hours to try to avoid the requirement of providing them quality health insurance.”
“This proposed change would actually do a lot of harm, not just to the Affordable Care Act but to a substantial number of workers across the country,” he said.
One of the original and persistent complaints about Obamacare is that employers have been reducing employees’ hours, from say 35 per week to 29, so they would not have the status of “full-time workers” for whom the employer has to provide health care coverage or pay a fine. The mandate covers companies that employ 50 or more people full time.
On the Keystone legislation, Mr. Earnest said congressional action would violate “an important principle” for evaluating projects that cross international borders.
“These kinds of projects in the past and even in previous administrations have been evaluated by the State Department and other relevant government agencies to determine whether or not the completion of these infrastructure projects is in the clear best interest of the United States,” he said. “We believe that is the right way for determining the future of the Keystone pipeline.”
Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, said Mr. Obama “rightly recognizes this dirty and dangerous tar sands pipeline is a bad deal for our country.”
“Meanwhile, the congressional Republicans who are preparing to use their very first vote to push the agenda of the oil and gas executives who helped elect them are wasting everyone’s time yet again,” he said.
A day after being besieged by reporters’ questions about why Mr. Obama hadn’t scheduled any meetings with Republican leaders, the White House announced that the president has invited congressional leaders of both parties to the Oval Office for a meeting Tuesday.
Mr. Earnest said the president wants to discuss ways to improve conditions for the middle class.
Mr. Obama has filled the rest of this week with campaign-style visits around the country to focus on his agenda as a buildup to his State of the Union address to Congress on Jan. 20. He will speak at a Ford auto manufacturing plant in Wayne, Michigan, on Wednesday, in Phoenix about the housing recovery on Thursday, and about education in Knoxville, Tennessee, on Friday.
• Tom Howell Jr. contributed to this report.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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