US President Barack Obama will be actively using his executive power: former assistant to the president on legislative affairs
WASHINGTON, November 4 (RIA Novosti) - US President Barack Obama will be actively using his executive power regardless what party takes control of the Congress, Patrick Griffin, former assistant to the president on legislative affairs told RIA Novosti on Monday.
"I think the president will continue to use his executive power aggressively," Griffin said. "The Congress will use its legislative authority to resist but getting enough votes again will be problematic."
At the beginning of his new term, Obama stated that he would counter Congressional gridlock by using a pen and a phone, which provoked a lot of criticism from both the American citizens and the Congress members.
US House Speaker John Boehner is pursuing a lawsuit against the president over abuse of power. House Republicans have argued that Obama is abusing his authority by side-stepping Congress on immigration, healthcare and other policies.
"There are no major, exclusively Republican, initiatives that can prevail," Griffin stressed, adding that they have to work with the president on issues where there may be some common interest, like trade, tax reform and transportation infrastructure.
The former US official noted that the Republicans will need a consensus from their own caucus plus eight or more Democrats just to get a bill out of the Senate.
"Then, the president can still veto any legislation sent to him even if it gets enough Democratic support to get out of the House and Senate and onto his desk," he said, explaining that the Congress then needs two thirds of those present and voting in both the Senate and House to override his veto. "That is a very high threshold to meet."
Griffin does not see any dramatic changes in foreign policy with regard to the countries like Ukraine, Israel, Syria, or Iran.
"They will continue to present challenges," he asserted. "If the Republicans wind up in control of the Congress, you might see more cooperation with the president in foreign policy rather than less."
This election is all domestic but not necessarily about anyone issue, Griffin emphasized.
"The republicans have successfully framed this election, in most states, as a general referendum on President Obama," he concluded.
On Tuesday, Americans will take part in the midterm elections to elect 435 members of the House of Representatives, 36 senators, 36 governors and 46 state legislatures. The elections are dubbed midterms as they occur in the middle of the present president's four-year term.