Before addressing the American people following the Democrats' rout in the midterm elections, President Barack Obama should have consulted with a former president to learn how to appear conciliatory, Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee said Thursday on "America's Forum" on
Newsmax TV.
"I was so disappointed in the tone that he exhibited yesterday at the press conference," she said. "There was nothing in his tone that said, 'all right, I hear you, I understand you, I agree with you, and we're going to go about this [in] a different manner.'
"He should've talked to Bill Clinton before he went out and gave that press conference so that he could emulate some of what Clinton did after their '94-'95 elections and through that period."
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Since Tuesday's election, Blackburn said she has been inundated by constituents' asking whether Obama will work with the new Republican-led Congress.
"They're anxious to see things get done and they realize the hang-up in the whole situation has been Harry Reid and the fact that he will not move House-passed bills off his desk," Blackburn said.
She's encouraged that the
president is having a meeting with the Republican leadership from both chambers, though Blackburn is skeptical that Obama will change his tack based on his post-election remarks.
"The president needs to realize that in this country, what he has to do as our chief executive officer ... is to work with the people's representative of each chamber," she said.
"He is not going to get his way on everything. And to say if we don't do what he wants on immigration, if we don't do what he wants on minimum wage, that he is going to move forward and he is going to do it himself because he just can't afford to wait on that ... there is nothing that gives him that power. He can't do that.
"So I would encourage the president and his team to take a breath, to calm down a little bit, to get their act together and organize and focus on what the American people are wanting to focus on."
Should Obama refuse to back down from his pledge to resort to executive action to implement amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants, Blackburn said the Republican-controlled House and Senate are prepared to squash it.
"If he decides he's going to continue to use his pen and phones, then Congress is going to have to come right behind him and pass legislation that will disallow the action that he has taken. And after a couple of times of doing that, maybe that's what it's going to take to send the message," she said.
"He can't continue to act as if there is an obstructionist body. One of the things that really made a difference in the election was people coast to coast began to figure out the Houses work in a bipartisan manner.
"They've sent 387 bills to the Senate [and] they're sitting on Harry Reid's desk; 98 percent of those bills were bipartisan [and] 298 of those bills were veto-proof," Blackburn said.
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"They had a two-thirds or better majority coming out of the House. Now, Harry Reid is the obstructionist, he was running defense and interference for Obama. Harry Reid is no longer the majority leader of the Senate. Barack Obama is going to have to work with the Republican-led chambers on Capitol Hill."
She also remarked that if the president refuses to bend on Obamacare, the new Congress will hammer him by undoing all the waivers and delays "that he unconstitutionally moved forward on."
"Obviously, through delaying it, he admitted it was not working," she said.
The president granted some 2,200 waivers of his signature healthcare legislation to friends and companies that were friendly to him, she added.
"Let's then get those things off the books and see where that leaves us. That's a pretty good starting point."
Finally, the House will again pass a
Keystone pipeline bill and again send it to the Senate, promised Blackburn, who is the vice chair of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee.
"This time we know that the [upcoming] Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is going to take the bill up, send it through regular order in the Senate, and move it to the floor of the Senate for a vote," she said.
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