In his press conference this morning, President Obama said he’d be willing to tweak and improve his signature initiatives, particularly health care reform. But in new talking points sent our way, the White House makes clear that Obama will veto any attempt to repeal those accomplishments.
It would be a mistake to spend the next two years re-fighting the political battles of the last two years. The President is proud of the progress we have made for average Americans - from health care reform, to financial reform and reforms to our education system. While he has always made it clear that he is open to ideas from both sides of the aisle to improve these important new laws, he will not accept attempts to repeal or weaken them.
No real surprise here. Even Republicans have acknowledged that their efforts to repeal Obama’s agenda will fail as long as Obama remains in office. And with a minority in the Senate, Republicans won’t be able to send repeal bills to the White House anyhow.
But both in his press conference and in talking points, Obama has taken repeal — or repeal and replace — off the table.
Meanwhile at his press conference this morning, soon-to-be House Speaker John Boehner insisted that repealing health care reform remains a key GOP priority.
Brian Beutler
Brian Beutler is TPM's senior congressional reporter. Since 2009, he's led coverage of health care reform, Wall Street reform, taxes, the GOP budget, the government shutdown fight, and the debt limit fight. He can be reached at brian@talkingpointsmemo.com.
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